


DustShift

by TeethHead



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Crying, Gen, Genocide, Moral Dilemmas, My First Fanfic, Pain, Papyrus Remembers Resets, Papyrus-centric, Temporary Character Death, Violence, cursing, many many resets, might add more tags later if I need to
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-09-19 10:38:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 27,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9436553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeethHead/pseuds/TeethHead
Summary: If the human makes constant Genocide runs, Sans stops caring. If Papyrus joins him in remembering, will anything change?Sometimes Mercy is not always the best choice.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first attempt at a fanfic and I hope you like it. If you have any suggestions for me on how to improve, feel free to let me know. I'll try to update once a week. I don't what else to say, sooooo, Enjoy!
> 
> Edit: I made some changes and edits to the first chapter. I hope it flows better.

They were in a nightmare. That's what is was, a living nightmare with no way to wake up. There were countless attempts made to wake up, but nothing ever seemed to change. The only difference that Sans saw was that Papyrus was now living the nightmare with him.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark and quiet in the skeleton household. 

Papyrus was laying on the couch of his and Sans' Snowdin home, his eye-lights fixated and unseeing on the ceiling with one arm across his chest and the other hanging over the edge. 

Sans was quietly nursing a bottle of ketchup with a bunch of empty bottles surrounding him on the floor in front of the couch. He was turned away from Papyrus watching the carpet as if waiting for mold to grow. 

They had both run out of things to say and complain about a few hours ago. The repeating days, nights, conversations, and deaths were never changing, yet neither felt like sleeping. It was a feeling that if they didn't sleep, then it couldn't reset. 

They both knew how foolish that was.

Despite the quiet though, Papyrus' mind was buzzing. 

'Why do none of my plans ever work? Why couldn't the human just leave them alone?'

He honestly didn't mind staying underground anymore if it meant that they wouldn't have to die again and again. 

'Why did I start to remember the resets?'

“Sans?”

Sans twitched at the broken silence, “yah bro?”, he said without looking up. 

“Do you remember when it was that I started to remember?” 

Sans stayed silent. He honestly didn't want to remember, because that was when the pain became ten times worse. That was the time when he started to see his brother slowly lose his hope. 

“n-not really bro, why do you ask?”, he finally answered.

After what was probably over fifty resets, Papyrus could easily tell when his brother was lying to him. It really was not that big of a deal though. He had come to understand his older brother and the reasons why he always seemed so lazy before. He just kind of wished Sans wouldn't feel the need to lie to him anymore. 

He pushed it aside. 

“I was just remembering that when it happened and I began to learn what had been going on all this time I had thought, 'This must be a sign that things were going to change for you and everyone else. That everything was finally going to be okay. That the human would finally stop killing us'.” 

Papyrus paused. 

“I guess I was wrong.” 

Sans jumped up looking frantic and scared at Papyrus, “No! Don't say that!” 

Papyrus lifted himself up slightly and looked at his brother, he was breathing heavily and looked on the verge of tears. 

“don't say that bro. it's true t-that the human hasn't changed their mind yet, b-but they have to be getting bored soon. we–we just have t-to hold on for— for a bit longer.” 

Sans was shaking as the tears began to fall without his consent. Papyrus could tell what Sans was trying to do, and he could kinda understand. Sans had been living with the resets a lot longer than he had and somewhere along the way, Sans had admitted to depending on Papyrus' happy and positive attitude to keep himself going.

Papyrus just didn't have the same patience and perseverance that Sans had.

“I'm sorry Sans, I guess it's just been a long day today. I-I'm sure tomorrow will be better.” Papyrus lied to Sans. 

Sans sighed with a slightly forced smile.

“yah, you're right, maybe we should head to bed now. t-tomorrow will be better.”

They were both silent and unmoving for a bit longer before Sans spoke up again. 

“well, goodnight pap!” 

And with a small pop from his teleportation, he was gone. 

Papyrus sighed and sat up. Maybe he really was just tired and some sleep would help him think more clearly. He sighed again before getting up and making his way to his room. 

“Yeah, tomorrow will be better.”, he whispered to himself, “Tomorrow....”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus woke with a start at the sound of a loud thud that was followed by the sound of barely contained sobs. Sans had another nightmare – and if he were honest, he did too. It was the same dream as always: a dust covered underground and the sound of childish laughter. He sighed and slowly got up out of his bed. He popped his bones and made his way towards his brother's room. He remembered a time when he would be rushing to be by his brother's side, to want nothing more than to comfort him, to tell him that everything was alright and that it was just a dream; but they both knew he would be lying. 

Papyrus knocked on his brother's door. 

“Sans? Can I come in?” 

There was a quick stifling of sobs and some rustling of things moving around. 

“y-yah, j-jus– just give m-me a second.” 

Papyrus waited a literal second before opening to door. Sans was standing in the middle of his room, furiously trying to dry his face with his shirt when Papyrus stepped in. 

Sans looked shocked and turned away. 

“i-i-it's... th-there's...th-this is not...”

“Sans.” 

Papyrus interrupted his attempt to come up with some kind of obvious lie and walked over to him. 

Sans looked up at his little bro with tears still threatening to fall down his face.

Papyrus knelt down and just hugged his older brother. 

“...p-pap...”

“Ssssssh.” 

It didn't take much more for Sans to just cling to Papyrus and start sobbing. 

Papyrus felt his vision gloss over as he stared at the far wall of the room. His brother was crying in his arms, yet his soul barely moved. He still loved his brother very much, but with no way to fix anything, how many more times would they be in this very same position? How many more times would he have to make false promises and pretend that he believed all the lies he spewed? His hope was low, they both knew it, but Papyrus still felt forced to put on this charade. 

They sat like that for an unknown amount of time, but after what felt like half an hour of Sans just sniffling, Papyrus spoke up. 

“Sans?” 

Sans made no motion, but Papyrus knew he was listening.

“Have you ever thought of a way that we could take the human's reset powers away from them?” 

Sans stiffened in his arms, “t-take them away?” 

“Yes. If they couldn't reset anymore. Would that be possible?” 

Sans shook a little, “i-i don't know. i mean...., i-i guess there was that one time..., i mean...”, Sans tried to gather his thoughts, “the only way they might lose their power would be if someone else with more Determination than them came along. probably, that might be what happened with flowey anyways.” 

Papyrus knew of Flowey. Every so often that flower would pop up to taunt him with sickly-sweet lies. Flowey also let it slip once that the human had stolen his reset power. This was back before the flower realized Papyrus was remembering things after the resets. He has since stopped talking to him.

“Hmmm...” 

Sans looked up at Papyrus and could see the wheels turning and to be honest, it worried him. 

“pap?” 

“Would it be possible to get more Determination somehow?” 

Sans' eye-lights went out, this was not what he wanted his brother to be considering. He did not want Papyrus to even be thinking about it. 

“p-pap, monsters can't handle that stuff. sure, it may be powerful, and might even have the chance to help us, but too much would kill us! we can't consider that, it's too dangerous!” 

They both went silent, but Papyrus was still thinking. Sans just wanted him to drop it, there had to be another way, there just had to be. 

Papyrus was already thinking of other ways, but had a feeling that Sans wouldn't agree, so he kept silent on it. 

“Oh, I guess I have to think of something else.” 

Papyrus' voice was low and monotone. That worried Sans, but as long as he would stop considering Determination, then it should be fine. 

“You should get ready, the human will be coming out of The Ruins today.” 

“...right.” 

Papyrus got up and left the room. 

Closing the door behind him, Papyrus headed downstairs to get breakfast ready. All his thoughts were on his new plans for dealing with the human. 

'The only way to deal with someone without an ounce of mercy in their soul does Not include Mercy.', Papyrus confirmed to himself. 

He pulled the eggs and bacon from the fridge and turned on the stove, “It'll be difficult, but I think I can manage. I just have to be brave.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus learns that the human is very different from monsters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow! I got a lot more views than I was expecting and some Kudos too! Yay!  
> Please, don't be afraid to leave a comment! I won't bite. Thank you!  
> I hope you guys enjoy this. Genocide can do things to people. ♥

The fog was thick like usual on the path that lead to Waterfall. Papyrus remembered Sans telling him that it was because of the temperature change from the ice cold of Snowdin to the damp warmth of Waterfall. It was also the reason you could see the breath of those with skin and body heat while in Snowdin. It was nice to learn new things like that every so often, it distracted him from the living nightmare he was in. 

Papyrus let out a deep sigh and looked up at the cave ceiling, 'Skeletons don't get to see their breath. That's kind of sad.' 

Papyrus' thoughts were wandering. 

The human should be arriving soon. 

He had actually found himself hoping that today would really be better like he had told Sans. That would have been one of the biggest coincidences for him had it come true, but, alas, the human was not bored yet. So Papyrus was going to change the cycle on his own. He didn't think that this would fix everything, but it would give him some new information to work with. Sans didn't like to talk about the fights he had with the human. All Papyrus knew was that the human would eventually win every time, so he planed on finding out how.

Papyrus was snapped out of his thoughts at the sight of the small shadow of the human approaching. The closer they got, the better he could see that they looked the same as ever; blue and purple clothes, the tough gloves and bandana from the Snowdin shop, covered head to toe in dust, and a creepy smile. The human really wasn't going to change anything this time around.

“ **Halt, Human!** ” Papyrus shouted. 

It did nothing. 

“ **Quit moving while I'm talking to you!** ” 

They continued forward. 

“ **I have some things to tell you.** ” 

They were stopped by a wall of bones appearing in front of them. 

“ **First: You're a freaking weirdo!** ” 

Their smile twitched slightly. 

“ **Second: The way you shamble around, always covered in dust; I see you heading down a dangerous path!** ” He knew he was changing his words around, but that was the point, “ **I would like to help you off this path! But! I need you to promise that you will stop killing!** ” 

Their face turned curious. 

This was very different, but he needed to try, “ **Human! Would you be willing to shake on that promise?** ” He lowered the wall of bones and the human immediately began walking towards him. He could see their gloved hands twitching and their smile growing to the deranged. 

'C-can I really- No! I must!' 

He saw their hand pulled back to attack, but the splattering sound of bone ripping through flesh filled the air for a moment before the silence came crashing back. 

'Oh no.... What have I done.', Papyrus covered his mouth with both hands. 

This was so much worse then he could imagine. Humans did not turn to dust like monsters. The blood dripped from the torn and shredded body hanging off his bone attack, staining the pure white snow. 

Papyrus fell to his knees and began to sob, but was stopped abruptly when the body twitched violently. The human's head lifted up with a huge smile plastered on it's face and looked directly into Papyrus' tear filled eyes, “ _Let's try that again, shall we._ ”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus woke screaming. 

He saw that he was back in his room, but he couldn't stop himself. He screamed and thrashed and cried so loud that he didn't hear Sans come in or even hear him calling and shouting his name. It hurt so so much. He knew that dying was painful, but he had no idea how painful it was to kill, and he had killed them. He killed them three times! It hurt so bad that he could no longer hold himself together on the fourth try and ended up dying again.

“PAPYRUS! PAPYRUS, WAKE UP!”, Sans shouted at the top of his metaphorical lungs. 

His throat hurt from shouting so much, but he was terrified, he had never seen his brother like this. He knew that he himself had woken up screaming many times, but never Papyrus, never his sweet, innocent, and caring brother. That demon told him that Papyrus; His Papyrus, had killed them three times. That couldn't be true! There was just no way! His Papyrus would never even hurt a fly. That demon had to be lying. He was just imagining the time skipping around that time, or they probably just wanted to kill him a few more times just for the hell of it. Yah, that had to be it. That makes a skele-ton more sense. It was the only thing that made sense.

Sans shook his brother with tears streaming down his own face, “PAPYRUS! Pap! pappy. please wake up.”, he sobbed. Why couldn't he just wake up?

Papyrus was starting to lose his voice from screaming so much and it was only then that could finally hear his brother crying over him. He forced himself to calm down enough so that he could see his brother through his tears, “S-s-Sans?”, he croaked. 

Sans' head shot up, “Pap! T-thank the stars you're awake! a-are you ok? y-you were screaming so-so loud, you were really s-scaring me. i-i--” 

“S-sans,”, Papyrus cut him off, he didn't think he had it in himself to do any real comforting if Sans lost it now. “I-I'm sorry for scaring you.”, he needed to calm down, they both did, “I-I guess the last one d-didn't go s-so well.” Fresh tears began to fall from his eyes and he quickly tried to wipe them away. What did he just tell himself!? 

“p-pap, what happened? what did they do to you?” 

Papyrus looked at Sans for a second, 'What? He didn't know?' 

Papyrus thought for sure that Sans would know. He always lived longer and seemed to know things that most others should never have known. He should have somehow known what he..., what he had done. He did. Papyrus did it. He had killed the human. Not only that, he had killed them three times! The act itself wasn't even that hard, it was just his mind that stopped him. Why did he suddenly feel fine thinking about it? 

“pap?” 

'Shoot!', he had been quiet for too long, “I-I-I..., t-they, umm...”, what was the question again? 

“it's ok if you don't want to talk about it, I understand.” 

'What did he understand?! Wait. Was he just testing me?' 

“i know the human can be an as— a jerk, but hopefully it was just a one time thing.” 

'Huh? He thinks the human did something to me? Maybe it would be better this way.'

Papyrus sniffled and turned away from Sans before nodding a little. His tears had mostly dried up already, but it seemed to work just fine since he felt Sans hug his side. 

“i'm here for you bro, we just gotta stick together.”

Papyrus looked down at Sans when he could feel his face buried into his pajama shirt. He did want Sans to see the calm on his face, it wouldn't be a good sign for either of them. Sans would know he was hiding something and Papyrus would have to face the fact that something might be wrong with him. He didn't want to think about it and just returned Sans' hug, “Thank you Sans.” 

A lot of the tension melted from Sans body. He knew his brother would never hurt the human, the idea was just ridiculous. Papyrus couldn't even talk about the cruelty of others, let alone inflicted any himself. He already had a few choice words for the human, but he had to be careful that he didn't make it worse. That demon just loved to watch them struggle.

“hey pap. why don't we just take today off? yah know, just relax and take a breather this time. i mean, we do have a couple of days till the human comes out of the ruins again. what do you say? sound fun?”, Sans just wanted to stop thinking about all this unpleasantness for once. Was that too much to ask? 

Papyrus felt the same way, but felt like they still needed to keep up appearances for their friends and neighbors. What would happen if they started acting strange because the brothers didn't feel like pretending this time? 

He was almost going to voice his complaints when he remembered, 'Would it matter? What was one slightly different reset when everything would go back to normal again with the next one. It didn't matter and he and Sans deserved a little break.' 

Papyrus chuckled slightly, “You know what, that sounds nice.” 

Sans immediately cheered up at that, “great! what did you want to do today?”

“Well... did you want to help me with a new recipe?”

Sans looked up at him, “absolutely.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember the good but, prepare for the bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I got double digit Kudos!   
> Thank you! Everyone! I hope you are enjoying the ride, cause we are not stopping anytime soon.

Papyrus was out standing in the fog again, just remembering.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last couple of days before the human would show up again were nice. He had called Undyne and told her that he and Sans were feeling unwell and couldn't go on patrol for two days. With a few well placed coughs and sniffles, Undyne completely bought it and wished them both a speedy recovery. 

It was Papyrus' choice for the first day. 

They found a couple of decent cook books in The Garbage Dump and spent the rest of the morning trying out a few of the recipes. Most of them came out pretty good considering they had to use a lot of substitutes. Some of the ingredients were a complete mystery to them, so they just used things that sounded similar. Not the best choice overall but, they still had fun.

They then spent the afternoon creating new puzzles and discussing new mechanics that could improve and increase difficulty. Puzzles were one of the few things that Papyrus had any actual pride in and despite his usual lack of effort, Sans had a lot of good input. It was probably his mostly secretive background in science. Sans still didn't like to talk about it much.

In the evening, they rested in Waterfall admiring all the sparkling stones. Sans said that on the surface, some humans had made pictures in the sky by connecting different stars together. They didn't have that many to work with, but they decided to try make few of their own. They ended up making around ten new sparkling stone pictures and declared them ten times better than whatever the humans had on the surface.

Sans' day was spent mostly lazing about.

They did try to improve one of their better attempted recipes, but ended up just experimenting and coming up with a mess. Papyrus felt his usual urge to clean it all up, but Sans insisted that they were on break and they could let a reset clean it up. At least that was one good thing a reset could do.

Papyrus then surprised Sans by agreeing to pranking Undyne with all of the leftover spaghetti in their fridge. She was apparently doing paperwork(for once) in her Waterfall home, so Sans secretly teleported the containers all around her and around every corner of the house she turned. She ran out the front door screaming and freaking out, shooting her magic spears everywhere. Sans and Papyrus had stayed out of sight, but had to head back home when they could not longer contain their laughter.

That night, Sans 'borrowed' some of Alphys' animes to binge-watch till they passed out on the couch for the night. It was not like she would notice for long enough till the next reset. At least, that was what Sans said.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It really was a good couple of days. It helped Papyrus to remember why he wanted to change things. Why he needed to stop the human. They couldn't have new days like that unless they got out of this loop, and if that meant getting a little blood on his bones, then so be it. It's not like the human is giving them any other choice.

Papyrus saw that little shadow approaching again and readied himself.

“ **Halt, Human! I will not allow you to pass this point!** ” 

The human was immediately surrounded by glowing blue bones.

“ **You have been shown mercy time and time again!** ”

They tilted their head to the side as they watched Papyrus.

“ **Not once have I seen you return that mercy to others!** ”

They did not seem interested in losing health needlessly. After all, Papyrus let them go last time.

“ **Human. I'm not sure I can help you anymore.** ” 

Papyrus raised a gloved hand to ready his attack, but froze mid-motion as the human let out a maniacal and ear piercing laugh.

“ _HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAheheheheeheheheHaHa!_ ” They clutched their sides as they tried to speak, “ _I see what's going on now! You remember, don't you? Hehehehe._ ”

Papyrus was frozen in fear; their voice was terrifying, like metal scratching on metal, claws on a chalkboard, the high pitched static of an alarm, or some crazy combination of all of that set on boil. He had never heard them speak so much before. Usually it was one or a few words before, like 'pathetic' or 'waste of time', and those were often after Papyrus was already turning to dust. 

“ _I've always wondered what it would be like for me to actually get to fight you. I never thought that I would get the chance since you never put up a fight before._ ” 

That type of voice should never come from any living creature.

Papyrus needed it to stop.

Tears he could not control fell down his face as the new bones pierced the trapped human.

That bright red blood, brighter than any other red he ever saw, flowed from its soft form.

But it did not stop.

“ _AHAHAHAHAHA! My God! Now that was not fair of you. Did the Stupid and Pathetic Papyrus really just take a cheap shot at me?_ ” They coughed up more blood, “ _You better enjoy this, cause it will never be this easy again._ ”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus was still shaking from the shock when time was rewound, but he had to get it together quickly since the human's shadow was already rapidly approaching. He took a deep breath to calm himself and was about to speak when he saw the human already a foot away from him and about to attack. Papyrus quickly summoned two long bones to block the attack. The human took a small cut on their forearm, but was already jumping back and charging in from the side. They were not going to let Papyrus take a breath, forcing him to only react on fighting instinct. Papyrus blocked the next attack as well and shot out a wave of alternating bones to stop them. They got caught on two of the bones, but dodged the rest and began weaving their way closer again. Papyrus threw another bone-wave with blue bones mixed in to try and slow them. They dodged it all and charged around behind Papyrus. He couldn't turn in time and took a pretty good hit that snapped a couple of ribs and put a pretty good crack in his left humerus. He was really glad that he managed to raise his defense for this fight, but his thoughts had to stay on the fight since the human was already charging in for the next attack. Papyrus raised a blue bone wall in front of them that they easily jumped over only to be hit with his blue attack. They fell hard to the ground, their soul shrouded in blue magic.

“ **Nyehehe! Hah. I turned you blue!** ” Papyrus was sweating a bit. “ **Now you can't escape my next attack!** ” Summoning more bones, he shot them all at the human. They tried to dodge some of them, but the blue magic held them down enough that they took the brunt of the attack.

They were just barely hanging on by shear Determination as they looked up at Papyrus. “ _Hahaha, nice one. But let's see how long you can keep this up._ ” One last bone shot through their chest as they went limp.

Papyrus really did not like hearing their voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel that the human here has either, never encounter Papyrus' blue attack before, or it's just been so long that they no longer remember it.
> 
> Just in case anyone was wondering.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus has a new plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad that people are reading this. It makes me so happy that I can entertain you with my dark thoughts.  
> This past week was pretty busy, so I didn't have enough time to get a proof read on this chapter.  
> If there is anything majorly wrong, I'll come back to fix it.  
> Feel free to let me know if I made any mistakes or even if you are just enjoying the ride.  
> Thank you everyone!

What is Determination and how is it able to affect time in such ways? It didn't make any logical sense. As far as anyone knew, time was never able to jump back and forth, or to start and stop at random. At least, not before Flowey showed up. Flowey had, no, still has Determination and before the human showed up, that little flower played with time in may different ways. Papyrus did not personally remember any of those resets, but from what he learned from Flowey and Sans, Flowey did not always just kill. In fact, he was even nice to everyone sometimes, so why then, was the human killing everyone in the same ways over and over and over again? Didn't they get bored?

Papyrus lay in his bed staring up at his ceiling. It was still very early in the morning, much earlier than he normally woke up, but his concern over what happened with the human would not let him remain asleep. Papyrus felt like he should move, roll over, or even just get up, but his apathy left him motionless.

He had won against the human many, many times, but all it took was for them to win once and all his hard work was undone. It was frustrating to say the least.

It didn't make any reasonable sense though. How could the humans, with no magical abilities of their own, produce a child with more power than all of monsterkind combined? It was as if the universe itself was determined to torture the monsters into extinction. If that was how the humans, the universe, everyone wanted to play with their lives, then Papyrus just needed to even the playing-field somehow.

Papyrus knew that Sans had worked in the royal lab before and had an understanding over Determination that he refused to explain to Papyrus. Sans was incredibly stubborn and completely locked into his secrets but, that didn't mean that he was the only one who knew what Determination was or what it could do. 

Alphys was The Royal Scientist. She created Mettaton and much of the technology that everyone used in The Underground, even if she never claimed ownership over her countless contributions. She lived in the labs themselves all by herself and was almost never seen outside of them, let alone in anything other than her lab coat. You could say she lived and breathed science and was always surrounded by all of her projects and experiments. That should leave no doubt that she should have all of the notes and information on Determination that Papyrus needed. She may be as protective and secretive as Sans but, she was also severely lacking in self-confidence.

Papyrus decided to pay Alphys a visit today.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus spent about another hour in bed before deciding that getting up and getting dressed before Sans woke up would be best. He remembered what happened last time after he tried killing the human and Papyrus didn't think he could handle Sans' denial of events this time. He had things he needed to do today and pacifying his brother would most likely take all day. He could just claim that he needed time to think on his own, or that he just wanted to go do some early morning training. After all, Papyrus was still a child in Sans' eyes.

There were barely any other monsters out this early in the morning, so the skeleton's walk through Waterfall was mostly quiet. He still played the part of The Great Papyrus when he saw anyone and greeted them in his loud and obnoxious way. It was tiring. He was grateful when he finally found himself standing outside The Lab. It was a horribly simple name, but at least it wasn't a pun like Snowdin.

Papyrus took a deep breath and knocked loudly against the front door. He could hear it echo throughout the inside. Alphys was most likely still asleep and he should probably feel bad for trying to wake her up, but you needed catch secret keepers off guard if you wanted to get any information from them. That was the only way he got Sans to talk about anything, even if he did shutdown after a few snippets here and there. Sans was use to hiding things from everyone, he spoke to everyone and used his near infinite supply of puns to deter any and all questioning. Alphys, on the other hand, rarely, if ever, spoke to anyone. She actively avoided conversation if she could help it and became a stuttering mess if engaged in any sort of talk.

About five or ten minutes passed with only the constant hum and rumble of the Hotland machinery, and the slow pops and gurgles of the lava below. Papyrus raised his fist and knocked again, calling out, “ **Alphys? Are you awake?** ” Maybe if she knew it was just Papyrus she would let him in without any problems. She was known for ignoring visitors from time to time. Not this time it seemed.

“P-Papyrus? I-Is that you?” The voice was quiet and soft, but it was obvious that it did not get used much. The door slid open with a mechanical 'woosh' and there stood the short, yellow dino-monster. She was wearing her usual lab coat, but it was wrinkled to oblivion as if she slept in it, which was a most definite yes, and it also looked like it hadn't been washed in at least a week. 

Papyrus struggled to hold back a cringe. “ **Alphys, I wish to talk to you about Sans. May I come in?** ” It didn't hurt to try and lower her guard even further.

“W-Wha—, a-a—, I-I mean. Y-yes, sure.” She stepped aside to let him in. 

“ **Thank you Alphys.** ” He only had to bend over slightly so as not to hit the top of the door frame.

Alphys closed the door behind him and walked off towards her work station. She pulled out a folding chair from behind one of the piles of papers and trash and set it up near her desk. She got her office chair. 

Honestly, Papyrus should be glad that he was not offered something she used often. He wondered if it was just a scientist thing to always be messy and covered in grease.

After Papyrus sat Alphys spoke up again, “S-So, w-what can I help you with?”

Papyrus took a careful breath to try and avoid gagging on the stench of the place. “My brother is hiding things from me. Things that I was hoping you could tell me.” He had lowered his volume from The Great Papyrus loud to just Papyrus. He still saw her twitch a little, meaning he couldn't take this slow. “What is Determination and why is it so important to humans?”

Alphys visibly flinched as if he had hit her. “D-D-D-Determina— D-Determin-what? I-I-I don't know w-w-what you're talking about. T-There is n-none of that here. Y-you should l-look —”

“Alphys.” Papyrus cut her off, he was not about to be kicked out that quickly. “I need to know if you still have any and where you keep it.” He tried to keep his face as neutral as possible. 

She watched him with fearful eyes as if she couldn't believe what he was saying or how he was acting. She did not look like she would be able to speak anytime soon, so Papyrus needed give her some more motivation. 

“Alphys, there is a human coming to The Underground that wants to kill all of us. I need tha—” He was the one cut off this time.

“A-A human?! I-I h-haven't seen one o-on any of my cameras. H-How do you know t-that a h-human is coming?” She had turned around to scan through all the cameras on her computer screen, but then looked back at him when she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. She looked worried and concerned, but also confused and a bit intrigued. 

Papyrus knew that it was going to be difficult to explain his need for the Determination without bringing up the human and would be even more difficult without bringing up the constant resets. He pinched the bone between his eye-sockets. “Look, it doesn't matter how I know, it's just impor—” He was cut off again.

“W-Wait, Sans w-would never have told y-you anything about D-Determinati— t-that stuff you're t-talking about.” She was obviously struggling with her insistence that she knew nothing about Determination. “I-I-I should, m-maybe, give Sans a-a call just to se—”

“ **NO!** ” Papyrus shouted out loud and jumped to his feet, kicking his chair out away from him. Alphys just froze. “You can not talk to Sans about this.” His voice had an uncharacteristic dark chill to it. He couldn't have Sans find out that he had gone behind his back despite all of the warnings. Unlike Alphys, Sans would not forget.

Alphys was terrified. She had never known that Papyrus could be terrifying and it had her fearing for her safety. In the back of her mind, she knew Papyrus would not and could not hurt anyone. She should not be scared of him, but the sound of his voice and the look on his face said that this was not the same Papyrus that everyone knew. She slowly reached into her lab coat for her cell phone so that she could text either Sans or Undyne and ask for help.

Papyrus saw her move for her phone and panicked. 

He lunged after her arm in an effort to rid her of that cell phone that could ruin everything for him. Alphys screamed and rolled out of the way, falling out of her chair and onto the floor. Papyrus looked down at her quickly and saw the phone had slid from her hand and was lying a few feet from her. She saw where he was looking and desperately clawed after her phone. Papyrus was not thinking straight anymore and shot a bone at it in the hopes of destroying it. It hit at an angle causing the bit of plastic to go careening across the slick tile floor. Papyrus was completely focused on the thing that could ruin everything between him and his brother. So focused in fact that he didn't notice all of the objects flying at him in time to dodge them. Alphys stopped throwing things at him and took his distraction to run after her phone. Just as she felt victory within reach, she felt warmth flood her entire right arm. A bone was jutting through the floor and impaling her right wrist. She couldn't even recognize the warmth as pain right away. She slowly turned to look for Papyrus in an attempt to understand what had just happened. Papyrus was breathing heavily with an arm out stretched and a few more bones floating around him, poised to attack. 

They both stood still watching each other, neither knew what to do. Papyrus was screaming in his head to stop what he was doing, that he just hurt an innocent, and that he should have just tried to talk to her but, he knew that Alphys would surely tell someone what happened here. She was good at keeping her own secrets, but had no problem talking about other monsters' secrets. 

Would they even believe her though? 

Papyrus knew the answer to that. No. No one would believe her, not without evidence. Papyrus was innocent, naive, and childish. He could never hurt a fly. All he had to do was get rid of any evidence.

Papyrus calmed down and vanished his attacks after destroying her phone first. 

Alphys slumped to the floor without a word and continued to watch him. Tears were streaming down her face at this point. That wasn't important. 

He walked over to the fridge beside her desk and pulled out some of the instant noddles she had in there. He tossed them over to her, “Eat that to heal your hand.” The words came easy to him. “Do you have any cameras in this room?” He asked as he made his way to the monitor displaying a few of the cameras around Snowdin.

Alphys still hadn't moved except to hold her damaged hand.

“ **Alphys!** ” 

She twitched violently. 

Papyrus turned to her with sharp eyes, “I need you to delete all of the footage you have of this room from the time I arrived to when I leave.” This was the only way. “ **Now!** ”

Alphys squeaked and rushed over to the computer without looking at Papyrus. She was trembling so much that it was a wonder how she managed to actually operate the computer and delete everything that could be used against him. After she was done she slumped to the ground, seeing as her chair was still knocked over.

Papyrus felt himself trembling. “Do not tell anyone what happened here.” 

He couldn't stay here anymore. “I was never here this morning.”

He wanted to go back home. “Make sure you heal that hand.” 

He stood there for a minute trying to make sure that he didn't forget anything and then left without another word.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans panics again and Papyrus deflects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! I got such a nice comment on the last chapter and gave me an extra boost to keep doing my best!  
> Thank you everyone who is reading, it makes me so happy!  
> Let's continue down the rabbit hole and see how far it goes.  
> ♥♥♥♥

Sans was panicking. He woke up about an hour ago and could not find Papyrus. He had tried calling his little brother's phone, but found it ringing on his bedside table. Papyrus always had his phone on him, he had always wanted to be ready in case a new friend called. But it looked like it hadn't been touched all night. It was exactly where he left it every night.

Sans was starting to wonder if the reset got messed up somehow. The last run was interrupted right after Papyrus' death and there were multiple retries during that fight, just like the last run. Sans had sworn against watching Papyrus die every time. He just couldn't take it anymore, but the retries kept coming and the time in between each kept changing, just like... No, he couldn't think like that. This was all that demon's fault and they were finally getting bored of their usual killing. That was the only possible explanation and Papyrus would never... 'stop thinking about it.'

Sans stopped pacing the living room and held his skull in his hands. The last things he saw before the reset kept playing in his head and he couldn't get rid of those images. That red snow was not suppose to exist.

His thought's were interrupted by Papyrus walking through the front door. His little brother looked like he had been crying, but he also looked terrified as if he was caught in the act of... something.

“Sans!” His voice was not to his usual octave and he quickly rubbed his face dry. “W-What are you doing up so early?” He was trying to act normal again, try to remember what he would normally say in these situations, but all he could think about was what he just done and his desperate race home. He saw that Sans had not been having the best morning as well, but as to why left him floundering.

Sans was on a similar thought pattern and tried to cut through the silence between them, “i-i was just, um, well. i-i didn't know if-if.” Sans took a breath before starting again, he really felt horrible. “i-i thought that you might not feel too well after that last run, but you weren't in your room.” That demon must be trying to manipulate his relationship with his brother and just made him see things that weren't true. That was probably what happened, and it almost made him confront Papyrus over something that couldn't be true.

Papyrus watched his brother shuffle from foot to foot and was really hoping that this wasn't some sort of trick to get him to confess. It was then that he remembered the excuse he was going to use if this happened, “I'm sorry Sans. I just thought that some early morning training might make me feel better. I guess I should have left a note.”

Sans visibly relaxed greatly and took on his more comfortable stance with his hands in his pockets. “no, it's alright bro. you don't haf ta' apologize. just, maybe, don't forget your phone next time?” He pulled out Papyrus' phone from his pocket and held it out, “'kay?”

“ **Oh My Goodness!** ” Papyrus exaggerated as best he could, complete with hands to his face. “ **I can't believe I forgot my phone at home! What if I had gotten a call while I was away?** ” He sounded so fake even in his own head, but he still grabbed his phone and held it up over his head dramatically. “ **What if today was the day that someone wanted to confess their undying love for me?** ”

Sans snickered, “sorry bro, but maybe they'll call later. tha only calls are from me when I was tryin' ta find ya.” His speech was back to the casual slang that he use to use when Papyrus knew nothing.

Papyrus noticed and was wondering if his over-dramatics were the cause. “ **Oh, but you are very important to The Great Papyrus as well! Your calls might even be the best! But that is only expected when you are the brother of someone as great as me!** ” This was tiring, but Sans was snickering some more and even looked like he had a more natural smile on, so maybe it would be worth it.

“awww, thanks bro.”

'Wow.' Papyrus could not believe that it was that easy to dodge and avoid questioning like this. 'Was this how Sans felt during all those years of secrets? Might as well keep up the act.' “ **Of course dear brother! And knowing that I got a wonderful call from my extraordinary brother is giving me the energy needed to make an equally amazing breakfast!** ” He quickly stomped off towards the kitchen in the false excitement to get started. He just needed anything to do so as to forget about what happened less than an hour ago.

Sans relaxed in the belief that everything was fine again and ended up shuffling over to plop down on the couch. With a content sigh he called out to the kitchen, “erything you make is amazing bro.”

Papyrus was pushing pots and pans around just to sound like he was cooking so that he could check his own stats. He was so grateful that Sans didn't try to insist on helping, Papyrus didn't think he could hold back the fear that the indecent with Alphys had changed something in him. He just really needed to see if Sans would see anything different should he decided to check. 

His stats were all the same, not even any EXP.

He gave a huge sigh of relief and stopped moving for a bit. He should have known that there would be no difference. His training with Undyne always ended in a few cuts and bruises here and there, but neither of them ever gain EXP over it. It must have just been his guilty conscious that made him panic.

“bro?”

Papyrus jumped so high he thought for sure he would have hit the ceiling. “ **SANS!** ” He turned quickly and was relived that Sans was not standing in the doorway, so he wouldn't have see how freaked out Papyrus was.

“you ok bro?” Sans called from the couch. The silence he heard from the kitchen had him a bit worried and he was about to get up to go check when Papyrus called out.

“ **DO NOT DISTRACT ME WHILE I AM WORKING ON THIS MASTERPEICE OF A BREAKFAST! JUST WAIT A BIT LONGER WHILE I WORK!** ” He really hoped the shouting hid any panic in his voice.

“a'right a'right bro. i'll let you get back to it.” Sans chuckled.

Papyrus heard the TV turn on and sighed. He wondered if it was possible to sigh too much. Not wanting to find out, he decided to actually get to work on breakfast. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The brothers had made casual small talk as they ate, and were acting like the human had never shown up in their lives. It was nice and helped keep Papyrus' mind away from less desirable topics. It wasn't till Papyrus was cleaning up and washing the dishes that he remembered that he never got any answers about Determination from Alphys. He nearly cursed out loud as he dropped a plate. It luckily didn't break, but Sans still heard it.

“bro? You alright in there?” Sans quickly appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

Papyrus had to act quickly, “ **Yes, of course! The plate just slipped from my hands, but my greatness must even be rubbing off on our dishes for it did not break! Isn't that great? I am just overflowing with greatness that everything around my becomes great by association!** ” 'Stars! That sounds ridiculous.'

Sans just chuckled. “yah bro. anyone would be great jus' by talkin' to ya.”

“ **Of course dear brother!** ” 'Geez, how stupid does he think I am?' Papyrus hated acting the fool, but he hated the thought of Sans becoming hopeless at finding out how far Papyrus had fallen even more. “ **Now we must hurry before we become late for work!** ”

Papyrus rushed Sans out the door and locked up behind them. There was no real rush today, but he needed some time alone to think without Sans worrying about him. “Make sure you actually get to work this time! I don't want to catch you snoozing somewhere like a lazybones!” With that, Papyrus marched off towards his puzzles. Whether Sans went to work or not was not important and probably never was before the human showed up, but just as long as Papyrus had some alone time to think about his next plans it didn't matter. And Papyrus really needed to have a better plan for when he tried talking to Alphys again.

It would have to wait till the next run so he could have a clean slate since Alphys was most likely still afraid of him. 

Just don't push it and Sans will never have to know.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Intermission?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that this chapter is so late!  
> I've just had a lot of personal issues to deal with lately and I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter.  
> I'm not very happy with it and I hope everything will be better by next week.  
> Sorry again! And I hope you still enjoy this chapter. ♥

“ **AAAAAAAAAARGH!** ” Papyrus screeched in a very undignified way at the trees, snow, and darkness that surrounded him. “ **GAAAAH!** ” He shot a few more conjured bones at the scarred and splintered tree that lay on its side in the heavily disturbed area of snow. A few, large splinters exploded in every direction, a few of the smaller bits bounced harmlessly off his arms.

He thought that he had been so very careful that morning, that his lying and acting skills were spot on, and everything had seemed like it would pass without further incident, but apparently Sans was a much, much better liar than Papyrus had given him credit for.

“ **GRRRRAAAAAANS!** ” The gurgled version of Sans' name escaped his throat in another frustrated scream. The rest of the tree trunk splintered into near nothing as another barrage of bones hit it, but it wasn't enough to quell his anger. Another tree began to topple as a new barrage attacked the trunk from every angle with renewed ferociousness. The sound of the rapidly snapping branches from the tree's decent and the huge, echoing thud when it hit the ground felt like it should have woken the entire underground. Though Papyrus knew better as he was deep enough in the woods and he had already toppled three other trees with no disturbance.

Papyrus could feel the huge urge to curse at the winds, but restrained himself and just shouted more frustrated noises. “ **AAAAAAAGH!** ”

Sans, despite how relaxed he had acted and how much he seemed to believe Papyrus' lies, had decided to 'secretly' follow Papyrus around for the past two days and watched him as if he, Papyrus, had grown a second head or even as if he feared his younger brother was going to spontaneously combust at any moment, or both. Papyrus wasn't given a single moment to relax and think by himself at all. He had to go as far as to slip out of the house through his bedroom window in the middle of the night just to get away from his brother's constant attention for even a moment. He couldn't even wear his battle-body and boots since they were to large and noisy for his stealthy escape. He was simply dressed in an old t-shirt, loose pants, and socks. He didn't own quiet shoes and said socks were completely soaked through with melted snow at this point, but that didn't matter, the rage needed an outlet.

Papyrus raised his arms above his head to attack the tree again, but suddenly the urge left him in a flash and his arms fell limply to his sides. He hadn't even summon any sort of attack and yet the energy needed to keep his arms hovering over his head just seemed like too much. He looked up into the dark chasm of their cave ceiling breathing heavily. The soft wind and his breathing was all he could hear, all other sounds had ceased. The desire to see the real stars and the real sky suddenly tugged on his soul. It hurt him to know that that may never happen because of the human. It wasn't fair.

He fell to his knees and just sat in the snow concentrating on his breathing. He couldn't think straight till he felt even somewhat calm and relaxed again. He really shouldn't be wasting the alone time he had finally acquired. The human was arriving tomorrow, which meant that he didn't have a lot of time till he had to speak to Alphys again. That lizard was such a stuttering mess that he wished he could just calm her down like he would always calm down Sans during one of his panic attacks.

“....Can I not?” Papyrus muttered to himself.

It was an idea that he hadn't even considered since they were not related, not even in the realm of friends, seeing as they never really spoke before. But... Alphys watched all of the Underground from her lab and must have seen how Papyrus acted many times before and even how everyone else treated him at all times. That meant that she should see him as a child, just like everyone else. Children could get away with a lot more than adults could. Also, if he was remembering clearly, he did see a bit of confusion in her fear, as if she didn't believe that he could have ever attack her.

“Wouldn't that be proof in itself?”

Papyrus felt somewhat foolish for how long it took him to come up with such a simple plan, but it did sound like it could work. Hugs usually worked for everything else and what monster could say no to a hug from The Great Papyrus?

It was as good a plan as any. Feeling satisfied, Papyrus got up to his feet, dusting the snow off his clothes and head, and began making his way back home. Now was just a matter of getting back inside his room without alerting his brother.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus was pretty proud of himself. 

He had managed to get back in the house last night with no trouble and then even woke up like normal to make breakfast in the morning. It must have calmed down Sans enough since he had stopped with all the 'secret' following today. It might have just been the human arriving as well, but Papyrus preferred to think otherwise.

The human should be showing up in their fog covered battleground again soon and Papyrus wished that he could just go to meet them so that they could get this over with. Dying was always painful, but prolonging it was even worse. And Papyrus had plans after this.

He spotted the human walking through the fog towards him and it looked like they were ready for a fight.

“ **Halt, Human!** ”

They stopped and twisted their head to the side as if confused.

“ **I do not wish to fight you today!** ”

Their brow furrowed as anger seemed to settle over their features.

“ **Unless you plan on changing your ways here and now,** ” Papyrus lowered his volume to an almost death-like rumble, “I would like it if you could just get this over with.”

The human froze in shock at the sudden change in Papyrus and it took them a minute to shake themselves from it. The anger came back at full force as they glared at Papyrus.

He barely made a twitch, but was glad that he at least had some effect on them.

The anger spiked up even more as they clawed at their own face for a second before they suddenly and quickly charged at Papyrus.

Papyrus sighed and closed his eyes. The hit came with much more force than necessary and Papyrus was glad that they didn't speak and at least finished him off quickly. 

Now he could just focus on Alphys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Early bird is too early.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG GUYS! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE KUDOS, BOOKMARKS, AND COMMENTS! EVERY SINGLE ONE MEANS SOOO MUCH TO ME! I LOVE YOU ALL! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
> 
> I made it to the 10k word count with this chapter, WooHoo! Yay me!  
> I hope you guys enjoy this one!  
> P.S. someone cries.....

“...292...293...294...295...296...297...298...299...300.”

Papyrus had counted every single second of the past five minutes as he paced the hallway just before Hotland. Once he got to 300 he stopped in his tracks.

He had woken up too early.

He looked up at huge glowing letters of the Hotland welcome sign and could hear the low buzz of electricity running through the lights. He could feel another sigh come up, but gave no effort to try and stop it. Its not like there were any monsters around to hear it.

He woke up way too early.

“Uuuugh...” He groaned loudly and fell to the floor in the middle of the hall with a rather loud thud. Now his skull stung from the landing, though he just tried to push the pain from his mind.

“Heh.” He chuckled at his unintentional word play. With no one around, he didn't feel the need to pretend to hate puns and other word play jokes. They could actually be pretty funny at times too. 

Now that he thought about, he only reacted so strongly to his brother's puns because it made him happy and Sans probably only kept telling those puns just to see those reactions. There were most likely many other things they did just for the others reactions or because they wanted their brother to be happy. One daily thing Papyrus had no problem dropping was his constant nagging and chastising of Sans' constant lazing around. That was something that he felt bad for doing now that he knew why Sans always seemed so tired.

Groaning, Papyrus sat up and rubbed his head. He felt the stinging pain in the back of his head from his foolish decision to try a trust-fall with no partner.

“Heh, guess I can't even trust myself with a trust-fall.” He groaned again and mumbled to himself. “That one was horrible.”

Just as he was about roll back on the ground a new noise echoed in the hall. Papyrus froze instantly and listened for that sound again. He could hear the buzzing electricity from the welcome sign, a slow and steady drip from somewhere closer to Waterfall, and a few pops and gurgles from the lava in Hotland, but no other sound. He knew he heard something and couldn't afford for someone or something to be watching him right now. He wasn't acting his part and really didn't want any rumors. 

Being as quiet as he could, he stood up as tall as he could and looked up and down the hall, still straining to hear any other noise.

“…...”

“Wosha!”

Papyrus snapped his jaw shut so hard, he was sure he heard a few of his teeth crack. He turned around as casually as he could and saw the small Woshua wander around the corner from Waterfall. Papyrus slowly forced himself to unclench his jaw and put on a smile as they got closer.

“Oh my goodness, Woshua!” Papyrus' voice was dripping with false cheer and happiness. “I didn't expect to see you over here!”

“Yes! It is time to wosh the elevators! Wosha!” They bounce a little with every word, sloshing their water back and forth. “Wosh u hands?”

Papyrus looked down at his hands and noticed a small bit of dirt clinging to his gloves. “Oh yes! Please?” He bent down at his knees so that the Woshua could reach. The Woshua hopped around excitedly. 'Thank the stars, they were not the brightest of monsters.'

Papyrus waved goodbye to the happy little thing after they had finished cleaning as much as he would let them. He dropped his raised arm after they were out of sight and got rid of his plastered on smile. “If the Woshua is going to work now, then it should be late enough in this early morning to talk to Alphys.” Papyrus spoke to himself. After a quick stretch and a moment to ready his mind, Papyrus followed after the Woshua into Hotland. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ **Hello Alphys! How are you this wonderful morning?** ” He had his Great Papyrus persona on full blast.

Alphys twitched as she looked up at him. She looked rather confused as to how and why she was even up so early in the morning. She got another reminder as to the 'how' when Papyrus spoke again at full volume.

“ **I had heard that you were not feeling too well lately! So I, The Great Papyrus, decided to come here personally to cheer you up!** ” Papyrus could see the annoyance rolling off her shoulders in waves.

“Y-Yes, ok, just please keep it down.” Alphys groaned at her growing headache.

Please with himself, Papyrus strolled in around her and inside the lab. “ **Of course dear Alphys! You will not regret this!** ”

Alphys groaned again and closed the door behind him.

Papyrus skipped towards the middle of the lab and looked around as if he had never seen it before. “Do you know what usually helps me feel better?” He lowered his volume a bit just so he wouldn't break her before she could answer any of his questions. “Cleaning!” He turned around just in time to see Alphys go from mild annoyance to full on shock and realization.

“O-Oh n-no, that is quite a-alright Papyrus. Y-You don't have to g-go out of your way l-like that.” 

'Oh stars. She is already stuttering.' Papyrus pushed past that thought. “It is quite alright Alphys! It is no trouble at all! In fact, I quite enjoy cleaning and with a little determination, I'm sure we can get this place sparkling!” He saw her flinch at that one word and couldn't help feeling a little giddy.

“D-Determination?” She was wringing her hands together quite severely and it even looked like she might already be sweating a little.

“Of course! It is a very important feeling to get things done!” He put a little extra emphasis on those last three words and then pausing for a second. “Though, it is strange that you would react the same way as Sans does whenever I mention that word. Why is that?” He gave her a completely innocent look of curious concern, at least, that was what he was aiming for.

“O-Oh, hehe, h-him too? I-I mean, I-I didn't know. R-Really? I-I m-mean, I guess i-it makes sense... No! I-Ignore that! I-I don't know w-what I'm saying. Hehe.” 

Alphys was making very little sense, but Papyrus didn't want to interrupt her in case she actually let something slip that he could work with.

“Y-Yah, t-there is no way y-you were talking about t-that stuff...”

“What stuff?” Papyrus jumped at her slip up.

“W-Wha—” Her mouth kept moving, but no sound was coming out.

Papyrus gave a look of concern. “Are you saying there is a thing, or 'stuff', called Determination?”

“A-Ah...n-no, I-I m-mean, yah, n-no. N-no was what I-I meant. I-I mean...” She turned away from him and muttered to herself. “O-Oh no, S-Sans is going to k-kill me.”

“Are you and Sans hiding something from me?” He took a few cautious steps closer to her and saw a few tears fall down her face. 'Perfect.'

Papyrus quickly rushed up to her and gave her a huge hug. “Please don't be sad. I'm not mad at you and I know Sans wouldn't be either. I just want to be able to help you feel better and secrets can be very painful.” He could feel her shivering as her tears soaked through to his bones. He could also smell her horrendous odor even better up close, but he forced himself to keep it together and not barf right then and there. “W-Would you like to share with me what is hurting you?”

She sobbed quietly for a bit longer before, thankfully, pushing away from Papyrus. It still took her another minute or two before she finally spoke up. “T-Thank you P-Papyrus, b-but I'm not sure i-if I should even be t-telling you anything about D-Determination.”

Papyrus was jumping for joy in his mind, but remained the concerned friend on the outside. “Why? What is Determination?”

“I-I hope Sans d-doesn't k-kill me for this.” Alphys chuckled slightly before wiping her nose off with her sleeve. “D-Do you want t-to sit down? T-This might get a l-little long.”

“Of course, that won't be a problem at all.” Papyrus smiled sweetly at Alphys and followed her to her desk. 

'Finally.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....yah, it was just Alphys again....


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans panics and Papyrus makes poor life choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I missed last week.  
> My emotional state hasn't been the best.  
> I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up the weekly updates, but I'll try.  
> I still plan on finishing this story, even if it might take longer than expected.  
> Anyways.  
> Let's spiral into the abyss together here. ~♥

Sans couldn't find Papyrus.

He had rushed to check in on his younger brother as soon as he woke up, but he wasn't in his room. Sans then teleported out to their stations in Snowdin forest with no sign of anyone having passed through recently. He checked all of Papyrus' puzzles, the door to the ruins, random parts of the surrounding woods, and even a quick check of Undyne's place and the garbage dump, all came back with no sign of Papyrus. Sans was getting increasingly worried and panicked and kept checking their home again and again in case Papyrus came back while Sans was out looking. 

Sans, despite what he had promised himself, had watched his brother's fight with that demon and saw something that he just couldn't understand. He only watched because he had to see why it was that Papyrus was not acting like himself. Sans had noticed something was wrong with his brother when he realized that Papyrus hadn't laughed a single time in— well, in who knows how long. What he saw was not the Papyrus he knew. His Papyrus was always trying to see the good in everyone and had an unstoppable belief that anyone could be good if they just tried. The skeleton that he saw out there was devoid of that good will. That skeleton had not only lost all hope for the demon, but even encouraged it to kill him and he had even smiled when he was killed. It wasn't any innocent or cheerful smile either. Sans didn't know how to describe a smile like that, or he just couldn't wrap his mind around seeing a smile like that on the skeleton that should have been his younger brother.

Sans felt dizzy. All these new unknown and uncomfortable thoughts spinning around in his skull made him want to throw up. Leaning against the wall of the latest cave that he was searching, he rubbed his temples and tried to get himself under control again. 

“there's just has to be a logical explanation to what I saw.” Sans shook his head to try and clear the mental fog that tried to overtake him. “i just have to find him.”

He only had a few more caves in Waterfall that he could check before he had to try Hotland. Papyrus didn't like Hotland, but if he wasn't in Snowdin or Waterfall, then there was only Hotland and New Home, and he would have to walk through Hotland to even get to New Home. Sans just had to ask around to see if anyone had seen him. Someone, anyone was sure to have seen his brother. It was just a matter of time till he found them.

A feeling of dread kept trying to creep up on him, but Sans forcefully pushed it away and kept moving.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus was having trouble keeping his eyes open with the overly bright, white light shining down on him as he lay on the cold metal table with a single leather strap tied across his chest. Alphys had said it was to keep him from falling off and hurting himself after the Determination, or DT as she called it, was injected, but Papyrus was not completely convinced of this.

He looked over towards the doorway that Alphys had disappeared into. It had only been a few minutes and he was already beginning to wonder if she had gotten cold feet and was just going to leave him here. 

She did tell him about her mistakes with the Amalgamates and how she was trying to hide it all from everyone, but Papyrus had promised her that everything would be alright and her secret was safe with him. He even suggested a better way to go about the DT experiments. That, instead of the massive amounts of DT that she had injected into all those fallen monsters, maybe she could try a very tiny amount of DT on him just to see if there was any effect to his body or mind. Then, if everything goes well, they could try a little more and continue the process, like an actual experiment. He didn't tell her that last little bit but, it should have been easy, with only a small amount of concern that things could go wrong. She should have nothing else to worry about and it's not like they couldn't get another chance to try again if this failed, though, Alphys didn't quite know about that part. She was too much of a nervous wreck to handle anymore new information.

Papyrus waited another minute and was about to free himself from the table to go look for her when she finally appeared in the doorway again with a tray full of syringes that seemed to be glowing red. That red was extremely similar, if not, the very same red that he saw often pouring from the human.

He felt an uncomfortable shiver run through his spine.

Alphys set the tray on a small nearby table with a loud clatter, her nerves making it impossible to do so quietly. She took a shaky breath and turned to see Papyrus watching her. She squeaked at seeing the look on his face. He looked so completely serious and concerned that she could easily have mistaken him for some other skeleton. Not that she knew of any other skeletons other than the brothers.

“P-Papyrus?” Her voice shook, “A-Are you s-sure you want to d-do this?”

She was obviously trying to get out of this again, but Papyrus was not having any of that.

“Of course Alphys. I am sure everything will go well. Just remember, you are only going to use a very small fraction of what you have in those syringes. Okay?”

“Yes! O-Of course! T-This is j-just to test... to t-test your r-reactions and t-tolerance to DT.”

He could see the shine of her scales as sweat began to drip down her head, the nervous flicking of her tail, and the twitchy wringing of her claws. He could see her trying to convince herself that she wasn't about to make one of the biggest mistakes of her life. Thinking back on it now, Papyrus could understand why she would be so scared of his brother. Sans had to have a lot of power to have fought the human as much as he had and he was a bit overly protective of his only family. How much power he truly had was still a bit of a mystery to Papyrus. 

He was starting to lose himself to his thoughts again when he was snapped out of it by the loud metal clatter of something falling back onto a tray and the following shriek that was made so much louder by the dark and empty halls of the lab. 

Papyrus cringed back at the ear-piercing sound and saw Alphys pressing herself up against the far wall as if she was about to be attacked.

Alphys had obviously startled herself pretty badly and was already sinking down to her knees and chanting quietly.

“I-It'll be f-fine, i-it's just a-a t-test. I-It'll be f-fine, i-it's just a-a t-test. I-It'll be f-fine, i-it's just a-a t-test. I-It'll be f-fine, i-it's just a-a t-test...”

Papyrus was starting to worry that he made a mistake in trusting Alphys with this, but he also didn't want to go through all of this again by calling the whole thing off now. He just needed to be brave and hope for the best.

He took a deep breath and saw that Alphys had done the same as she pulled herself together again. She made her way back to the tray of needles and carefully picked one up. Papyrus was thankful that it only looked about a fourth of the way full. Much better than all the way full as he was sure she might have chosen on her own. 

She tapped the syringe with one of her claws to make sure there were no bubbles. Her hands appeared to have steadied quite a bit. 

'Her chant must have worked.' Papyrus hoped as he watched her.

She stared at the bright and glowing red liquid for a moment longer before making her way over to Papyrus on the table. Her facial features appeared to have hardened, but the streaks of tears still shone on her face. She brought the needle down to his left humerus and was about to stab the needle through when Papyrus spoke up.

“Alphys?” His voice was quiet.

Alphys twitched and looked him in the face. She looked terrified. 

He felt the same, but held back on his nerves.

“Please go slowly.”

She opened her mouth to answer, but no sound came out. She instead nodded her head as she looked back down at the needle she held over his bone. 

He heard her swallow at the lump in her throat.

The needle slid in a lot easier than either of them expected.

Alphys took another shaky breath.

She pushed down on the syringe's plunger as slowly as she could.

As soon as that horribly red liquid touched bone, the lab was filled with an unbelievably loud noise that Papyrus couldn't pin-point.

He felt wet trails streaming down his face, starting at his eyes and realized that his vision had become incredibly blurry.

With the frustrations of that noise and his vision going, he was getting an increasingly horrible headache.

It wasn't until he realized that his bones felt like they were on fire that he knew that he was the one screaming and crying from the unimaginable pain. 

He didn't expect this and couldn't even think about anything other than the burning pain. He only remembered his last actual thought.

'Why can't I just blackout?'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emotions run high as Sans looks for answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost didn't make it today, but I managed to pull through for you guys.  
> I hope you are ready for more feels trips, tickets are free.  
> Have fun! ~♥

Sans stumbled and fell against one of the buildings in New Home, he clenched at his shirt over his sternum. His chest was burning with pain with no obvious reason as to why. He look down at were his hand was clenched tight, there was nothing there, at least, nothing visible. He had a very bad feeling about this and the ghost pain was not the worst of it. He took a few unsteady breaths to calmed himself down enough so that he could teleport properly. 

He landed in front of the door to The Lab. 

He knew he should have come here first when his panic had set in, Alphys had cameras all over the Underground that could help him, but something told him that there would be only be 'bad things' here. He didn't know what these bad things were or even how bad they were, but the feeling that they were indeed bad was so powerful it was strong enough to keep him away until now. 

The feeling of dread was piling up in him.

He knocked loudly on the door and called out.

“alphys?”

There was no answer.

He waited a second and knocked again, louder this time.

“alphys!”

Nothing.

He was shaking with fear and quickly teleported inside.

There were only a few lights on inside as if Alphys didn't have time to turn them all on, but Sans couldn't place why that only scared him more.

He checked upstairs in what he guessed was Alphys' bedroom, though it was completely open for one. He checked the side rooms and every storage closet he could find. He checked all the public areas of the lab and found no one. That only left the True Lab.

Sans hated the True Lab. There was nothing but bad memories down there, but he had nowhere else he could check. 

He steadied his breathing and teleported straight down.

It was dark like usual down here with only a few emergency lights at the ends of the halls to let you know that this place wasn't abandoned. Though, it was apparent that there was someone or something down here when someone saw the cleared paths in the layers of dirt and dust that covered the floors.

Sans dropped his train of thought when he heard what sounded like screaming coming from deeper in the compound. He couldn't tell who the voice belonged to, but he began making his way towards the source anyways, the paralyzing fear he felt all but keeping him from just sprinting. 

The screaming just keep getting louder, the further he walked. It was painful to hear, every step more agonizing than the last and it took every ounce of effort he had in him to not just turn around and run the other way right then and there.

“what the hell is going on?”

It was probably less than a minute walk through the lab, but it felt like it was at least an hour. By the time Sans finally made it to the room were the screaming was coming from, he couldn't even hear himself think anymore, but as soon as he saw his brother strapped to the table, all of his reluctance was gone.

Papyrus' screaming would have ripped his vocal cords long ago, if he had any. His grip on the metal table he laid on was so strong that it was warping in his fists. He was so strained in his cry of pain that he could have been mistaken for some sort of statue. The only thing indicating life was the sound and streams of tears falling from his blank eye-sockets.

“papyrus!”

Sans, forgetting his own pain, ran the short distance across the room to where his brother lay and gripped at his burning bones.

He needed to do something, anything to make the pain stop. He quickly scanned the room they were in and saw a small table knocked over with syringes scattered across the floor. A couple of them were broken with their disgusting red contents spilled over the floor.

“D-DT?”

Sans quickly turned around and finally saw Alphys huddled in a corner clutching her head with wide streams of tears flowing down her face. It looked like she was crying some sort of chant, but Sans couldn't hear what it was over his brother's screaming. He didn't care. Anger filling his soul, he grabbed one of the intact syringes and rushed over to Alphys. He grabbed her shoulder, shaking the syringe in her face.

“Did you use this?! Alphys! DID YOU USE DT ON MY BROTHER?!”

Alphys didn't move, didn't even seem to register that he was there but now that he was closer he could hear what she was saying, she was screaming it.

“HE TOLD ME TO HE TOLD ME TO DO IT I HAD NO CHOICE HE TOLD ME TO DO IT HE MADE DO IT HE TOLD ME TO HE TOLD ME TO HE TOLD ME TO I DIDN'T WANT TO HE TOLD ME TO I DIDN'T WANT TO HE MADE ME HE MADE ME HE MADE ME HE MADE ME HE MADE ME HE MADE ME DO IT!”

Sans stepped away from her and her screaming was once again drowned out by Papyrus' screaming.

“ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!** ”

Alphys was useless right now and Papyrus needed him. Sans turned back and rushed back to his brother's side and tried to think of what he could do, if there was anything he could do. It was so hard to think.

All of a sudden and without warning Papyrus stopped screaming and lay completely limp on the table, eye-sockets dark as the void. Alphys soon followed in the silence, but with some sniffling and hiccups. She soon began mumbling under her breath desperate pleas that it wasn't her fault, but Sans all but forgot about her.

“p-pap?”

Sans quickly unbuckled the single strap that held his brother down and shook him slightly by the shoulder.

“h-hey pap. c-come on, wake up.”

He could feel tears forming at the rims of his eye-sockets. He shook Papyrus a little harder.

“hey! come on pap. y-you can't leave me like this. pap!”

The tears were flowing freely now and his bones were shaking from the strain of trying to keep him standing.

“PAPYRUS! I'm s-so sorry! P-Please don't leave me! P-Please!”

Sans couldn't keep his voice steady anymore and breathing was becoming a near impossible task. He shook Papyrus' still and lifeless form, beseeching any god that might exist or even listen to his desperate pleas for this to all to be just a horrible, horrible nightmare.

“p-please, please, a-anybody, somebody w-wake me up. t-this can't be h-happening. p-please, please pap. d-don't...d-don't leave me. please.”

He buried his face into Papyrus' battle-body and sobbed loudly as the lack of answers and sounds pressed in on him from all sides. Sans was going to—

A blinding burst of magic engulfed the room for a second before dimming down to a simple orange flame over Papyrus' right eye as he sat up. 

Sans had flinched and backed up a step, shocked into silence as his sobs froze in his throat. It took what felt like forever for him to find his voice again.

“p-p-pap?”

Papyrus sat there on the table looking around the room as if seeing it for the first time before settling on his older brother.

“S-Sans?”

It felt like he hadn't used his voice in years, but with just that he was swept up into a tight hug from Sans, sobbing like a child. Papyrus looked down at his brother and wondered why he was crying. His mind still felt like a fog as his memories were slowly coming back to him. He looked up at the room he was in again. It was a bit dark, but he was still able to spot Alphys sitting against a far wall near the door. She looked terrified as if someone just died or something.

Then it clicked. 

'Wait. The DT. Alphys, did she do it? Why is Sans here? Did she tell him? Sans shouldn't be here. Why was he here?'

Papyrus pushed Sans back so that he could see his face. 

Sans looked relived, but confused.

“Sans, what happened? What are you doing here?”

Sans rubbed at his face with the sleeve of his jacket before speaking.

“d-don't worry pap, i'll get you out of here. she won't hurt you again.”

Papyrus frowned.

“That's not what I asked Sans.”

“p-pap?”

Sans noticed that Papyrus' eye was still glowing and was suddenly very afraid.

“What are you doing here Sans?”

It no longer sounded like a question, it sounded more like a demand.

Sans backed up a couple steps, beads of sweat beginning to form.

“p-pap, i-i couldn't find you. i-i was j-just trying to f-find you.”

Papyrus leaned in closer to Sans and began wondering why he looked so scared.

'Why does he always feel the need to know everything? Why can't I have a few secrets of my own? And why does he have to act like the victim when things don't go his way? Pathetic.'

That last thought struck him.

'Wait. No, he is my brother. I shouldn't be thinking like this. He was just worried about me. Where did that thought come from?'

Papyrus grabbed his skull and tried to shake those thoughts and the flaming magic of his eye away. He needed to get a hold of himself.

“p-pap?”

Papyrus quickly reached out and wrapped his arms around Sans in a tight embrace. He could feel Sans tense up at first.

“I'm so sorry Sans! I don't know what came over me.”

Sans relaxed a lot with a shuttered sigh and returned the hug.

“no, it's alright bro. as long as you are fine, then there is no problem. i'm sorry i didn't answer your question in the first place.”

“Thank you Sans.”

Papyrus tossed a glare over Sans' shoulder at Alphys still sitting at that wall. He was already thinking of a few stories that could work in his favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I make anyone cry?  
> Don't worry, I'm only about half way done with this.  
> Maybe.  
> I have no idea how many more chapters I have left.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Effort is given before jumping off the deep end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE ALL OF YOU READERS AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I WAS ABLE TO PROPERLY EXPRESS HOW HAPPY YOUR COMMENTS MADE ME!!! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
> 
> I'm sorry I'm a little late today, I had a lot of trouble trying to find the middle ground for the effects of DT and I sorta just really needed to post this before I wasted another day of half-assed editing.

Papyrus stood in the fog again.

He was fidgeting and had been for that last couple of days. He felt nervous, but excited. He was eager to test what the DT had done for him. Though, this caused everyone to fuss over him. Everyone he saw keep asking if he was okay and if everything was alright. Especially Sans.

He didn't understand why. Aside from a slight burning feeling in his bones, he felt great. He felt more like himself than he had felt in a long time.

'Why couldn't Sans understand and leave me alone.'

The slight burn in his bones told him that he could do this. It felt strange yet right, like this was how it was suppose to be. It was hard to describe.

The burn was uncomfortable at first, but it never left him after the lab. It never increased or decreased and just stayed constant throughout his bones. 

'Kind of like the constant hum of the CORE.'

It was a strange thought, but just like the heat, it felt right.

'Is this what DT does? Does it really just give me more confidence in myself? If this is it, then why did everyone feel the need to keep it hidden from me?'

He felt a slight stab of rage for half a second before it was gone again. 

He ignored it. 

The human was here now.

“ **Halt, Human!** ”

Their smile looked different today, but they did not stop.

“ **I do realize that you have difficulty with listening, but I would like to try something a little different this time.** ”

A wall of bones shot up from the snow to separate Papyrus from the human. They didn't hesitate in speeding up to vault over the bones. Papyrus hit them in the shoulder with a sharpened bone as soon as he saw them clear the wall. They made a growling sound before getting up again to quickly close the distance between them both. 

The human did not seem to be thinking about their attacks and Papyrus felt a little cheated about this as he made a lazy half step to the side, causing them to miss and get hit in their other shoulder by another sharpened bone. 

They staggered, but managed to lift their arms again and turned to face Papyrus again only to be stabbed through their right leg. The bone was long enough that it lodged itself into the ground as well as their leg.

They stumbled, but could not move forward.

They screamed and raged as they pulled and tugged at the bone. They were acting like a wild animal and that was very disappointing.

“ **Human. What are you doing?** ”

Papyrus rested a hand on his hip as he watched the beast struggle.

“ **It has never been this easy to dispatch you before. Why would you waste my efforts like this?** ”

They screeched out loud and long as if howling.

Papyrus winched slightly out of frustration. He manifested a bone club to knock them out when they beat him to it by punching themselves hard in the face.

They stopped moving and screaming for a moment. It was long enough for Papyrus to wonder if they knocked themselves out, but then their head shot up to stare at Papyrus with their more familiar and twisted smile. 

“ _Oh! Hello Pap! I'm sorry about that. Was just going on autopilot for a while there._ ”

Papyrus couldn't stop himself from flinching at their voice.

They quickly bit through their own tongue as if it was effortless. That red blood began pouring from their mouth as they spoke again.

“ _Let's try that again for real this time._ ”

They went limp and Papyrus was standing alone in the fog again.

It took him a second to realize what had just happened.

“ **They-They killed themselves? They can do that?** ”

“ _Yes. Yes I can._ ”

The human sneered at Papyrus as they came waltzing through the fog with giddy excitement.

“ _Did you really think it would be that easy to 'dispatch' me?_ ”

They were mocking him. He could not have that. He needed to regain control of himself and the situation. This did not change anything.

Papyrus took a deep breath and summoned two large femur bones in both hands.

“ **Well human, let us see who can come out on top.** ”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark again, probably too early in the morning for anyone to be awake.

Papyrus was laying on his back staring up at his ceiling. The events of what happened were replaying in his head over and over again.

\-----------  
Papyrus pinned them to the ground with bones through both legs.

They bit through their tongue again.

\-----------  
Papyrus pinned their arms this time and tried to stop them from biting again.

He was too late.

\-----------  
Papyrus made it in time to stop them by shoving a few fingers in their mouth.

Poor choice, they bit off his fingers along with their tongue.

\-----------  
Papyrus tried using his scarf this time.

They impaled themselves on a sharpened bone nearby.

\-----------  
Papyrus tried again with his scarf while keeping all extra bones away.

They reset through shear force of will.

\-----------  
Papyrus tried to knock them out.

They refused to fall and died from blunt-force trauma.

\-------------------------------

These continued a few more times till they got bored and killed him. The only good news that Papyrus saw was that the DT injection stayed with him through the reset. He didn't know why, but it didn't much matter.

“At least I don't have to worry about having to refill on DT every time.”

He mumbled to himself.

“what do you mean by that, pap?”

Papyrus shot up out of bed so quickly that he had to really struggle to keep the dizzy spell from sending him down to the ground. He hadn't even heard Sans come into his room.

“H-How long have you been there?!”

He desperately tried to rid himself of the spots that clouded his vision. Was the room spinning?

“please pap, just sit down before you hurt yourself.”

Papyrus felt a couple of hands push him back into the bed. Something told him that he shouldn't let this happen, but a louder voice said that that was just the shock and dizziness talking.

Papyrus sat on the edge of his bed with one hand on his skull, trying to keep his head from running away from him. He couldn't think straight and realized that he should not have tried to stand so quickly.

Sans let him calm down some before speaking up again.

“pap? what did you mean about refilling DT?”

Most of the spots had left Papyrus' vision and he could make out the concerned and worried look on his older brother's face. He needed to deflect this.

“Wh-What are you doing up so early in the morning Sans?”

“i could ask you the same thing pap. did you ask alphys to inject you?”

“Oh really? Is it really so early that even The Great Papyrus would not be up?”

“did you ask to be injected with DT, pap?”

“Oh, but you know me. I never really need that much sleep anyways”

“pap, answer me.”

“I definitely never need as much sleep as you always get!”

“Papyrus!”

Sans grabbed Papyrus by the shoulders and forced him to look at him. 

“we need to talk about you messing with DT and trying to hide it from me.”

Papyrus really did not want to talk about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you think we were done already? 
> 
> I'm not a nice person.
> 
> hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans is overbearing and Papyrus feels oppressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm a little late again, I was editing Chapter 1 along with writing this chapter. So if you want to go re-read it, it has already been posted.
> 
> I am soooo excited! Cause we are finally getting to the parts that I had been wanting to write the most when I started this! Oh boy! I hope you have as much fun as I do!  
> ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Papyrus had never gotten in trouble before and wondered if it was suppose to feel as oppressive as he felt now. He didn't feel like he should be getting in trouble for what he did. After all, he was only doing what he felt that he needed to do.

Sans was pacing in front of him. It was as if he was trying not to completely blow up in anger and frustration over Papyrus' 'stunt', as he called it.

“i just don't understand pap, how could think this was a good idea? i warned you against this! this is very dangerous stuff and you are lucky that it didn't kill you!”

Sans stopped in his tracks and tried to read his brother's facial features.

Papyrus was not looking at Sans as he sat on his bed.

“You told me nothing about DT Sans. I had to go to Alphys for any answers. I made sure Alphys only gave me a tiny amount and I'm still alive. Am I not?”

“the DT is still in your system even after the reset! you could have Killed Yourself and you might not have ever come back from that!”

“It is true that I was not expecting the DT to stay, but, in my defense, nobody would have expected this outcome.”

Sans looked like he might want to strangle Papyrus to vent out his frustrations, but ended up just throwing his hands in the air before dragging them down his face.

They had been going back and forth like this for possibly over an hour, but Papyrus refused to back down from his decision. He had only been trying to save them from these resets, but Sans was refusing to see it that way. Sans only wanted what Sans wanted and Papyrus hated that about his brother.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Sans spoke again.

“can you at least promise me that you won't try anything else with DT? this shit is dangerous and it could really kill you.”

Papyrus looked over at Sans and saw the worry and frustrations in his face.

“I am an adult, Sans. I do not have to ask your permission for every decision I make. But I do agree that I might have to forgo injecting myself with DT again.”

“promise me you won't touch DT again.”

Papyrus paused a second.

“I promise Sans. Now will you leave my room so that I may get changed?”

Sans didn't look completely convinced, nor did Papyrus expect him to be, but Sans nodded anyways and left the room.

Papyrus hated outright lying to his brother, but he was almost positive that getting just a little more DT wouldn't hurt— well, it wouldn't kill him. He still remembered the pain, but he was starting to enjoy the steady heat. He just needed to wait out Sans' spying for a couple of resets before he tried again.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

The brothers had breakfast in quiet later that morning. Both were still very much set on being the one in the right and neither had any intention of apologizing. Papyrus barely tossed his dishes in the sink before he was out the door without even a glance towards Sans. Sans stayed seated at the table with his barely touched breakfast. Sans did not watch his brother go, but he felt the need to get moving just to make sure Papyrus did not go for the DT again.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus spent the day recalibrating his puzzles, but they always needed the same changes. He tried to change them up just to keep himself busy though. He then went to train with Undyne the next day in the hopes that he could release some of his frustrations. Undyne tried to ask him what was wrong, but he brushed her off and went on patrol. Then, when the human showed up again, Papyrus just sat in the middle of the path so that they could kill him and get it over with.

The next couple of resets ended up about the same with a few sightings of Sans here and there. Every time Papyrus went to Undyne for training, she always seemed to know that something was up with him, but he was too frustrated and eager to get back into his plans that her worrying did nothing but annoy him. He found himself needing the resets to erase the concern and worry from everyone he talked too. They wouldn't understand even if he did take the time to explain to them.

Two more resets and Sans was still following him around. Papyrus was getting sick and tired of it. He just needed Sans to understand why this plan was the best they had or to just drop the whole thing and forget about it. 

'Why can't Sans just leave me to do what needs to be done.'

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Papyrus woke up extremely early after the last reset. He glanced at the clock and knew that no one else should be awake yet. Getting up sounded like a chore, but if he wanted to try and get away from Sans for even a little bit, this would be the best time to even try. So, with a bit of mental pushing, Papyrus got up as quietly as he could and got dressed in some comfortable clothes and grabbed his boots. He held his boots in his hands to avoid their heavy thumping as he climbed out of his window. The snow was deep as usual and helped to muffle his landing. He stayed crouched in the snow for a minute as he listened for any sound to indicate anyone had spotted him yet. There was nothing. As quickly and quietly as he could, he made his way to Waterfall, pulling his boots on as he went.

Papyrus stayed alert and cautious as he moved through Waterfall. He didn't want to see that Sans had actually woken up and was now following him. He prayed that it was far too early for his older brother to have spontaneously woken up as well. He needed to listen for any signs that anyone was watching him. Any off beat sound of dripping or rushing water could be Sans and it was nerve-racking. It wasn't till he finally made it to the last tunnel before Hotland that he let himself relax the smallest bit.

Papyrus looked up at the lit-up welcome sign and listened to the hum of electricity running through it. So similar to the DT running throughout his bones. It was a strange sort of comfort to find that at least something else felt the same way as he did. He looked up and down the empty hall again before sitting himself under the lights and breathing a heavy sigh.

'It shouldn't be all that difficult to just break into the Lab and take some DT now.'

The thought sent a shiver down his spine. He didn't know why, but he felt like he was forgetting something.

'Maybe drawing the layout of the Lab will help me remember what it is I'm forgetting. Maybe I am just forgetting an important flaw in that plan.'

Papyrus sat there, drawing in the dirt everything he could remember about the inside of the lab, but the feeling of forgetting something would not leave him. He had to have been sitting there for at least an hour trying to figure out what it was that he was forgetting before a noise down the hall snap him out of it. He shot straight up looking of the source of the noise.

“...”

“...”

“Wosha!”

Papyrus saw the first signs of the little Woshua turning around the corner and breathed a huge sigh of relief. He had completely forgotten about the Woshua coming down this hall. He didn't even notice that he had wasted so much time here. He tried to remember what he had said to them the first time he saw them and put on his best smile as they got closer.

“Oh goodness, Woshua! I didn't expect to see you here.”

“Yes! It is time to wosh the elevators! Wosha!” They bounce a little with every word, sloshing their water back and forth. “Wosh u hands?”

Papyrus looked down at his hands and noticed all the dirt clinging to his bones from messing with the dirt. 

“Oh yes! Please?” 

He bent down at his knees so that the Woshua could reach. The Woshua hopped around excitedly as they began washing his hands. 

'They really are not the brightest of monsters. Is this why it was so easy for the human to kill all of the monsters every time?'

Papyrus watched the Woshua work on cleaning every bone in his hands. He was kind of wishing he had worn his gloves today.

'Its almost as if they are just asking to be killed. Was I this naive before? Is this why Sans never told me anything before? Is this why Sans never tells me anything now?'

It came so suddenly that Papyrus couldn't even follow what had just happened. One moment he was watching the Woshua clean his hands and the next, he was looking at bones jutting out from a pile of dust. The panic didn't even come first, first he was just confused and couldn't understand where the Woshua went, where this pile of dust came from, why there were bones here of all places.

“W-Woshua?”

Papyrus croaked out. His voice felt stuck as he looked at his own hands and the layer of dust that coated them.

“W-What?”

He looked up and down the hall as if to try and find something or someone that could explain to him what had just happened. 

The panic began to set in as he saw nothing in the hall but him and this pile of dust. 

“D-Dust. D-Dust is what h-happens to monsters that—that— Oh no.”

The realization hit him like a massive boulder thrown by Undyne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ball is picking up speed down this hill of feels and darkness.  
> I hope you are strapped in tight and keep your arms and legs in the ride at all times.  
> Thank you.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where did the Woshua go? Papyrus wants to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Shit Guys! Over 1000 hits!  
> I never expected to get this many views on this depressing story!  
> When I first started this, I was hoping for maybe a hundred or so views, but 1000?!  
> This is sooo crazy and I am just sooooo thankful!  
> Thank you guys!  
> ialsowonderhowmanyofyouwillbeabletostickaroundtilltheendofthisstoryitissodarkandmoodyyay  
> Anywho! I hope you enjoy another chapter with crying!  
> Love ya!  
> ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

“No. No. No. No.No.NoNONONONONONONOOOO!”

Papyrus quickly dispersed the bones and grabbed desperately at the dust.

“NO! This can not be happening! There has to be some mistake! Woshua?”

Tears poured down Papyrus' face, mixing with the dust as they reached the ground. He was shaking uncontrollably and was just barely able to keep himself from collapsing into dust and spreading it more.

“What if someone sees this?”

Suddenly Papyrus was very scared. He quickly looked up and down the hall just to see that it was still empty, but for how long, he did not know. He yanked his scarf off of his neck and began scooping as much of the dust into it as he could find. He couldn't leave any of it should someone find out what he did. The shaking would not stop.

After collecting all he could see, Papyrus took off into Waterfall looking for a place with no one around and no cameras. He needed to find a place quickly before he ran into anyone. He especially did not want to run into Undyne, she was incredibly stubborn and would not be able to leave him alone till she found out what he was hiding. It also did not help that he looked completely frantic.

Papyrus turned around another corner and nearly tripped over a bench he had never seen before. He was panting hard now and just now realized that he could barely see. He didn't see anything that looked like a monster though and so he tried to use that moment to calm down enough to at least see where he was.

It took awhile, but once he could see again, he saw that it was a single room with only the one entrance and a slow river running along one of the walls. He immediately jumped in the water and began scrubbing his scarf clean of all the dust. He felt bad for the Woshua, but he was more terrified of being found out than anything else at the moment. 

He didn't know how long he stood in the river trying to get rid of every speck of dust from his bones and his scarf. It had to be at least an hour or more, but he didn't snap out of it till he felt a small vibration in his pocket. He jumped at the sensation, losing his footing and slipping under the water. He trashed about in his panic and it took him far longer than it should have to pull himself out onto the riverbank.

He jumped again, though less severely, when he felt the vibrations again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He didn't even remember grabbing it on his way out and he was amazed that it even still worked after being submerged in the water for so long. It vibrated again and he saw that it was from Sans. He was scared to answer it. What would he say? How could he ever hope to explain himself?

He was answering before he even noticed what he was doing.

“H-Hel—?”

“Pap! Shit! Finally you answer! I've been calling you all morning when I couldn't find you anywhere! Even Alphys couldn't find you on her cameras! Where are you? Are you ok?”

Papyrus held the phone away from his head and could still hear Sans shouting through it. He didn't dare bring it closer till he was sure that Sans had finished yelling at him.

“S-Sans?”

“what's wrong pap? where are you?”

Sans had gratefully brought the volume down to a more tolerable level.

“U-Um, uh, S-Sans?”

Papyrus felt the tears threaten to start falling again. He did not want to admit what he did, but he also had no idea how to handle this on his own.

“pap? Are you ok? did something happen?”

“I-I think I m-mess up.”

The tears were flowing again and the sniffling was making it really hard to talk now.

“pap, where are you?”

Sans sounded really worried now.

“I-I do not—do not k-know!” He was sobbing now. “T-There is a-a bench an—and a fl-flower and—and a r-river an-and—”

“i'll be right there pap, don't move.”

Sans had barely hung up the phone before he appeared right next to the bench with a small pop of his teleportation. He turned around quickly and saw Papyrus crouched in the dirt of the riverbank, still holding his phone to his skull, shivering from head to toe, and soaking wet. Sans began rushing over to his brother only to stop dead in his tracks when Papyrus flinched away from him.

“hey, pap, papyrus. what happened? are you ok?”

Sans began moving much slower as he closed the distance between them. He was angry before, thinking that Papyrus went behind his back again to do some more dangerous stunts, but now he was just really scared, worried, and confused as to how his brother ended up in this state. 

Papyrus did not move away and was just hugging himself as he stared at the dirt. He was barely even registering that Sans was even there with him.

Sans reached over and lightly touched him on the shoulder. Papyrus flinched, but Sans noticed that there was a slight grainy feel to his bones.

“what is this?”

He was going to pass it off as dirt till Papyrus flung himself back into the far wall. His face was full of terror.

“I Didn't Mean To! It Wasn't Me! It Was An Accident! I Didn't Mean To! I Don't Know What Happened! It Wasn't Me! I Didn't Mean To! It Wasn't Me! I Didn't Mean To! It Wasn't Me!”

“woah! Woah! Pap! calm down! i don't know what you are saying! what happen? what are you talking about?”

Sans tried to grab at Papyrus' arms to keep him from clawing at his own face. Sans was really beginning to panic himself now, but he also needed to keep himself together. It would do no good if they both could no longer function.

“The Woshua! I Didn't Mean To! The Woshua! I Didn't Mean To! I Don't Know Where The Woshua Went! It Wasn't Me! There Was Dust! The Woshua! It Wasn't Me! I Didn't Mean To! Where Did The Woshua Go?! I'm Sorry! I'm SorryI'mSorryI'mSorryI'mSorryI'mSorryI'mSorry—”

Sans felt as if his bones iced over. He did not like the implications of what he was hearing and he most definitely did not want anyone else hearing these implications. He quickly wrapped his arms around Papyrus and teleported them both into the living room of their Snowdin home. Upon landing, Papyrus quickly wiggled free and darted for a corner of the room by the couch. He immediately began clawing at his face again as he sobbed and screamed about how 'it wasn't his fault, yet he didn't mean to'.

Sans rushed over to stop the clawing again.

“pap! Papyrus! look at me, look at me! nothing is going to happen to you! i won't let anything happen to you! no matter what you may or may not have done i will always be on your side! look at me! bro, you are my world and i would do anything for you.”

Papyrus was still sobbing, but he wasn't screaming anymore. Sans was holding his face at this point and was trying to see any sort of recognition in his eye-lights. Papyrus couldn't really see through his own tears, but he did recognize the shape of his brother in front of him. He didn't know if he should take Sans at his word with this, but he was speaking again with his now scratchy and broken voice before any other thought came up.

“I-I killed the Woshua.”

Those were the four words that Sans just did not want to hear, but he pulled Papyrus into a tight, almost bone-crushing, hug just so he didn't have to look at the broken and almost resigned look on his younger brother. He almost wanted to deny immediately and say that there had to be some sort of misunderstanding, but he knew in his soul and by the EXP he could now see in his brother's soul that neither of them would believe that. He came to a decision though as he still held onto his brother as if he would dust right there in front of him.

“pap, where was this? i'll go get rid of any footage on any camera that might have seen you. i'll make sure no one will ever find out and when the reset happens it'll be like it never even happened. ok?”

Sans pulled back and looked up at Papyrus. Papyrus was trying to find a flaw in his plan.

“Sans, the DT is still in my system. What is the EXP does not leave as well?”

It hurt him to speak and Sans had to pause for a second at that.

“n-no, look, the human always kills everyone, but everyone always comes back after every reset. why would this be any different?”

Papyrus felt like it made sense, but something was telling him that it wasn't that easy. He just nodded anyways, he was so tired now.

“right. let me go clean up any loose ends and then all we have to do is go see that woshua after the reset. it'll be ok, you'll see.”

Papyrus nodded again. 

He wanted this to be a bad dream.

He wanted this to have never happened.

He wanted to sleep and never wake up again.

He also wanted Sans to be right this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Answer to the summary:  
> They got flushed down the river.  
> hehehehehe  
> That shouldn't be funny.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pain of knowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uuuugh.... This chapter just did not want to be written and I don't even like how it ended up.   
> Sorry guys, I'll try and make the next chapter better.  
> Better note, I made it to 20k words! Wooohooo!  
> I would warn you that there is more pain in this one, but I think that is starting to become a given.  
> Lov yah! ~♥

Papyrus was a mess. 

He was able to stay mostly calm for the remainder of the first day, still trying his best to believe that Sans was right in saying that everything would go back to normal after the reset. Though, after waking up the following morning he kept jumping between wanting to be arrested for what he did and hoping no one ever found out about it. 

Sans did his best in trying to just keep Papyrus in their house before he did something he would regret even more. It just got progressively worse the closer to the reset they got. The morning of the human's arrival didn't seem to come soon enough.

“pap, you need to just breath. that human will be here soon and you just need to get through today, ok?”

Sans was helping Papyrus get dressed, but the younger brother did not seem to notice what was happening around him. He was just vacantly staring at a wall and kept mumbling about something Sans couldn't understand, but he could guess.

“bro, we have to, at the very least, kept the script the same. we don't want a repeat of last time we changed the script.”

“N-no.”

Sans looked up and saw Papyrus finally looking at him. His voice was still cracked and broken, but he was finally here and not stuck in his head anymore. A small smile crept over Sans' face.

“there you are. it'll be alright, you'll see. after that human resets we'll go check on the woshua together. it'll be fine.”

Sans handed Papyrus his red gloves to put on. It took him a moment, but Papyrus took the gloves and followed Sans downstairs.

Papyrus did not want to follow the script today. He did not want to go outside and pretend everything was alright till he knew that it was alright. Still, he knew Sans was right. Changing the script only ever got more monsters killed and forgotten.

Before he knew it, Papyrus was already waiting for the human in the fog. He guessed he should be grateful, but now his mind was on what would come after. He had been trying to convince himself, the past couple of days, to truly believe that everything would work out and that the Woshua would be fine, but the slight burning in his bones kept telling him otherwise. He hated that he had to wait for the human before he could find out who was right, but he also found it slightly humorous that the human would be helping them out this time, even if they didn't know it.

Papyrus almost missed the moment they showed up, but it seemed like they were on 'autopilot', as they called it. They killed him as soon as they saw him, but Papyrus was grateful. Now he just had to wake up.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“pap, bro, you're making me nervous pacing like that. come sit down.”

Papyrus looked over at his brother and grumbled before taking to pacing some more. The frustrated sigh that came from Sans did not escape his notice.

“look, we have no choice but to wait. you said that you don't remember what time it was when you met the woshua, so-” -yawn- “-just relax for a bit while we wait.”

“What if we missed them?”

Papyrus frowned as he looked at Sans slouching against the wall under the welcome sign lights.

“You took forever to wake up and I was just about ready to leave without you.”

Sans yawned again as he stretched.

“bro, we haven't seen anyone at this ungodly hour, and you said that they were heading to work when you saw them. most jobs don't start till at least another hour or two and I think we could have sleep a bit more without missing the woshua.”

Sans sounded convinced that they would see the Woshua and Papyrus wished he could be just as confidant.

“I hope so.”, he mumbled it, but it looked like Sans was already falling asleep again.

It was an hour and fifteen minutes, Papyrus was counting, before noise was heard coming down the hall. Papyrus dropped to his knees and violently shook his brother awake. He was nervous and scared, but he also needed a second confirmation for who he may or may not see.

“w-wha—?”

Papyrus shushed him right away and was staring intently at the Waterfall side of the hall. It sounded like the voice was talking to someone and Papyrus felt a knot form in the pit of his soul. The voice was getting closer and by the the time the large shadow appeared around the corner, Papyrus knew it was not the Woshua. It felt as if his soul just dropped out from under his ribs.

Sans acted normal and greeted the Aaron and Moldsmal that pasted by, but Papyrus was still looking straight ahead at nothing. Sans shooed the two monsters away as quickly as possible before turning back to Papyrus.

“hey, pap, breath. this doesn't mean anything. you know, you were probably right and my over sleeping made us miss them.”

“No. No. No. No. No. No.” Papyrus grabbed at his face. His eye sockets were very wide and devoid of any light.

Sans grabbed at his arms, desperately trying to calm him down.

“h-hey, look! you said that they were going to go clean something, if we just go there, i'm sure we will see them there. or better yet, we can just go check alphys' cameras. come on, it won—”

Papyrus snatched his arms away from Sans and immediately did a check on his soul. He had been too terrified to check sooner, but now he had no choice.

“I-It's still there. I-I still have EXP.”

The tears were already falling down his face and his bones rattled as he shock in fear.

“I-I've killed them! T-They are gone and i-it is all my fault!”

Sans panicked and looked up and down the hall real quick before grabbing Papyrus and teleporting them both back home before anyone heard them.

“woah, woa—”

Sans just barely saw the attack coming before he was able to dodge out of the way. Papyrus' magic was going everywhere as Papyrus, himself, fell to his knees and screamed and cried. He was no longer in control and Sans needed to do something quick.

“pap! Papyrus! you need to calm down before you hurt yourself!” 'and me.'

Sans needed to get closer, but he was having enough trouble just trying to dodge all of the random bones shooting across the living room. Two bones shot past his head as one shot through their TV and three or four shot into the couch. Many more were impaling the walls, floor, and ceiling. Sans was scared that a few might even be flying outside the house. Sans hated using magic on his brother, but he wasn't sure if he had a choice this time.

“papyrus! can you even hear me?!”

There was no response and it was starting to look like a violent vortex of magic, just growing larger and larger with no sign of stopping. 

Sans had no choice.

With a quick flick of his wrist, Sans grabbed hold of Papyrus with his blue magic and pulled him straight to the ground. The vortex stuttered but did not dissipate. Sans lifted Papyrus and tried to pull him out of the vortex, but the vortex came with him and far too close to Sans than comfortable. It seemed as if the bones where now trying to aim at Sans and he had to jump around the room even more. 

He was getting tired, but he couldn't give up. While still holding onto Papyrus, he used his other hand to clear the bones from the couch before flinging Papyrus onto it. The bones exploded in every direction before finally dissipating. 

Sans hid in the kitchen till all he could hear was soft sobbing. He looked out to the couch and saw his brother curled up in a ball, sobbing, but still alive. He was careful as he made his way over, he did not want to set him off again. Stepping carefully around the broken divots in the floor, he walked up to his sobbing brother.

“h-hey, bro?”

Papyrus twitched violently before looking up at Sans. His face was a mess of tears and mucus. He dove out and clung onto Sans in an almost bone-crushing hug, fresh sobs rattling his frame. Sans held back a flinch.

“hey, come on bro. just breath, in and out. I'm here for you, no matter what.”

Sans rubbed Papyrus' back and tried to sooth his distraught brother.

“this will not make you any less great. it was an accident, accidents happen all the time. we just learn from them and do better next time. i love you bro, and no number accidents will ever change that.”

They sat on their ruined couch, holding onto each other till Papyrus calmed down and then Sans stayed with him for awhile longer, just to make sure he was alright. 

Sans looked up at Papyrus.

“hey, are you still with me here?”

Papyrus slowly nodded, a few sniffles all that was left of his sobbing.

“are you hungry? i can warm up something from the fridge, or maybe go pick something up?”

Papyrus shook his head and tried to speak, but his voice was completely gone. He coughed and tried again, but that only made it worse.

“hey, bro, don't push yourself. were you saying you were not hungry?”

Papyrus shook his head again.

“then, did you want me to warm something up?”

Papyrus shook his head again and wanted to just tell Sans what he wanted. Sans shushed him.

“hey, it's alright. did you want me to go get us grillby's?”

Papyrus slowly nodded without looking at Sans.

“heh, it's ok, i get it. something warm and just made would feel better after all of this. will you be ok by yourself while i go get it?”

Papyrus grunted and nodded again. 

“heh, i'll be right back.”, and with a 'pop', he was gone.

Papyrus sighed and rolled himself over into a more comfortable position as he looked over the house. It was a disaster. Everything was broken. The TV was in pieces with entire chucks just missing. The table with Sans' pet rock was on its side, or at least what was left of it and all of the splinters scattered everywhere. The couch he was sitting on had so many holes that if they had found it in the dumps like this, they would have considered it a lost cause. Then there was the house itself. There was some light and snow coming inside from a few of the holes, the stairs looked far too unstable to use, and the floor was so tore up that he could only guess that there was once carpet there.

He sighed again and wondered if a reset could fix all of this. 

His joints were aching as he tried to get up, but the effort was just too much and he fell back into the couch.

He wondered why it was that the reset could not bring back the Woshua. 

Why the human could kill without any consequences.

Why deviating from the script made some monsters just disappear.

Why no one else ever seemed to remember those monsters.

Why he was still trying to fix things.

Maybe some rest would help him know what he should do.

Just rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy! Pappy got some new problems to deal with!  
> Wonder if Sans will be able to help?


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus tries to cope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Procrastination is the bane of my existence and I ended up promising too many things to be due on the first.  
> My scheduling can really suck some times. XP
> 
> Anywho! We got another chapter and Papyrus really needs to stop moping around!  
> I do like this chapter more than the last one and I hope you guys enjoy it!  
> Thank you! ~♥♥♥

It had been days and probably quite a few resets, but Papyrus was unable to keep track. They all blurred together and made no sense and no difference. Things only seemed to get worse whenever he tried to do anything different, so why try anymore? Maybe Sans had the right idea and he should just try and wait out the human. They had to get bored eventually, right? Papyrus just did not want to mess up anymore.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“ _Hey! Tall, stupid, and bald! Hello?! Anyone home? Dumbass, wake up!_ ”

Papyrus snapped to attention after something hit him hard in the ribs. It hurt, but he wasn't dead and that was odd. He looked around him till he noticed the human looking up at him with their playful smile. It was sickening, though, any face they made would probably have the same feeling. He did not want to talk to them.

“ _Hey, retard! I know you can hear me!_ ”

“That's not a nice word”

His voice felt sore and far away. He didn't know when the last time he had spoken was, but he couldn't help it. An old memory of his former self would not let that word go.

“ _See! I knew you were still there! Sooooooo, you see, I have a question. What the fuck is your problem? You have been moping around for a long time now and it is reeeeally getting on my nerves. I want a fight! And you have been a shit-stain for far too long._ ”

Their voice was so horrible. Papyrus just wanted it to stop and let him back into the quiet darkness again. 

“What does it matter to you?”

“ _I just tooold you! I'm bored and want to fight you again! Are you moping cause your stats changed? By the way, what is up with that?_ ”

Papyrus tensed up. He only now remembered that they had the power to check his stats as well. He wasn't ready to remember that time again. He would never be ready. Why couldn't they just kill him and move on like usual?

“ _Oh? Wait! Did you? Hahahahaha Did you really?! Oh my god! That is amazing! Hehehehehahahahaha!_ ”

They were laughing uncontrollably now and it was only grating on Papyrus' nerves even more than their speaking voice. He stood up tall and stepped forward.

“Be quite you creature!”

They stemmed their laughter some.

“ _Hehe, awww Pappy! That's not a nice thing to say! Hehehe_ ”

“Silence! Do Not Call Me That!”

“ _Awwww, and here I was hoping that you were actually trying to gain some levels and give me a real challenge. _”__

__“I am not you!”_ _

__“ _No, but did you know that it only gets easier after the first one?_ ”_ _

__Papyrus shot a bone at them, aiming for their face. They dodged with no real effort. He needed them to stop talking now and shot a few more in their general direction. They were laughing again as they dodged those too._ _

__“ _See?! Look at you go! With a few levels, I bet you would be a real terror to fight! Hehehe_ ”_ _

__“I Am Not Your Toy!”_ _

__A spray of bones shot at them. Papyrus was angry. It took him awhile to realize that this was what he was feeling, but he could tell when felt the heat rise in his bones and saw the explosions of snow and dirt as his attacks missed. He could not aim very well through his rage at this time._ _

__“ _Oh! Your right! I need those levels! Just forget I ever said anything, ok?_ ”_ _

__They posed in mock innocence. Papyrus missed again and felt an especially strong hit in his back that caused him to stagger forward. He fell to one knee as he saw his hands dust in front of him. How was it that they were able to kill him so easily?_ _

__That horrible voice came up right next to his skull._ _

__“ _Thanks for the exercise, Pappy. You're the best!_ ”_ _

__Papyrus felt the heat try and push out the coldness of death as the human walked away, but it wasn't strong enough. He never felt so angry as he died before. He could not let it end like this ever again. He felt something as his vision faded and death took him, the word escaped him, but he knew this feeling would push him forward. That human creature would not get their way anymore. He would make sure of that._ _

__\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_ _

__Papyrus sat on the floor in the middle of his room in a sort of meditative position. It was true that he did not want to let that human have their way anymore, but he still had no idea how to change that. All of his plans so far had ended up failing in some spectacular way and repeating failure never seemed like the best idea. He had been sitting there for at least a few hours without a single new idea coming to him before Sans walked into his room._ _

__“hey pap, you doing ok?” There was quiet caution in his voice._ _

__Such a useless question considering their continued situation. Though, if he were being honest, it had felt like a long time since he had last heard his brother's voice. Maybe the voice of someone else will help him get out of this death spiral of thoughts that only seem to want to hurt him and those around him. Especially that human and their horrible sense of entertainment and excitement._ _

__“bro?”_ _

__He needed to stop thinking about it._ _

__“Sans, can we go to New Home?”_ _

__“...what?”_ _

__“I think a change of scenery will... maybe help?”_ _

__Papyrus looked up at his older brother and saw the confusion and worry on his face. It was understandable, Papyrus had not been taking earning EXP very well, but Sans had never blamed him, even if there was no one else to blame and the still-there-EXP was proof enough. Though, Sans' lack of an answer was making him a little nervous as the silence dragged on._ _

__“You know, to maybe see something new?” Papyrus tried a little more timidly._ _

__Sans sighed, “yah, you know, that sounds like a good idea. heh, it's been far too long since either of us has seen anything new hasn't it?”_ _

__Sans reached down as if to help Papyrus up off the ground. Papyrus took his hand, if only to be polite, but he stood up just fine on his own._ _

__“so, did ya' want to take the ferry, or do ya' just want to take a shortcut?”_ _

__Papyrus considered it for a moment before giving a small and quick smile._ _

__“You know, I would really rather not travel through Waterfall or Hotland today.”_ _

__Sans returned the smile and held out his hand again for Papyrus._ _

__“well, just take my hand and i'll show you a brand New Home.”_ _

__“Sans, I swear, if you ruin this trip with those half-assed puns, I'll spend the morning of every new reset telling Grillby to cut you off from ketchup from now on.”_ _

__“ouch, point taken.”_ _

__Papyrus chuckled, “Nyeh, let's get going already.”_ _

__And with a small pop of the teleportation, they were gone._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope nothing bad happens on their little trip.....


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to New Home!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SOOOO SORRY GUYS!!!  
> I SWEAR I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON THIS!!!  
> Just a lot of shit happened all of a sudden.  
> I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep to any sort of schedule anymore, but I sure as hell will try to keep you guys from waiting as long as you did for this one.  
> π-π~♥

New Home was packed. There were monsters everywhere, going about their business from one place to another as if it was just another day in the Underground. Though, to all of them, it really was just another day. It was a little jarring for Papyrus. He knew there were no other monsters in the Underground that had any clue that they were living the same days over and over again, but to see so many oblivious monsters in one place just made his current living conditions seem inconsequential.

Sans tugged on his arm and motioned for them to move out of the main crowds. Papyrus followed while still trying to wrap his mind around everything he was seeing. 

Sans pulled them to a quieter corner of the plaza and just stood by as Papyrus stared, open-jawed at everything around them. The older skeleton had seen New Home enough times to not be very amazed at how large and clustered it was. This was just an everyday thing here.

“Sans,” The sound of amazement was strong in Papyrus' voice, “how many monsters live in New Home?”

Sans shrugged, “heh, not sure bro. probably somewhere around fifty thousand if i had to guess.”

“That many? Wowie, I had no idea there were so many of us here. How many monsters are in the entire Underground? I thought the Underground was considered small.”

Papyrus finally looked down at his older brother with a hint of wonder and amazement in his eyes. It had been far too long since Sans had seen that and he was more than willing to try and encourage more of it.

“well bro, if there are fifty thousand here then, the entire Underground should be somewhere around one hundred thousand. most monsters live in New Home, and Snowdin has the smallest population at one to two thousand. i guess that is a lot of monsters, but if we are comparing to the humans, they greatly out number us, from what i understand.”

“Is that so?”

Papyrus looked back over the crowds, his excitement lessened a bit. Desperate to bring back the wonder, Sans spoke up again a bit quicker this time.

“yah, but, hey pap! would you like to check out the New Home Library? they actually spelled it right over here and they have tons more books.”

The wonder seemed to come back to Papyrus as if it was a light peaking through the shadows that hung over him. Sans always knew how much it bothered Papyrus that Snowdin would not fix the misspelling of their 'Librarby'. He would have made a joke about it in the past, but he just wanted Papyrus to be happy, at least for today.

“The Library? Do you think they have new puzzle books?”

“you know, i'm almost positive they do bro.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The New Home Library was huge, larger than any building back in Snowdin and it was filled to the brim with old scavenged books as well as newly printed books. Papyrus spent a long time on the second floor with all the puzzle and cooking books, while Sans checked to see if they had any new science books since he had last checked. Papyrus had to be shushed a few times whenever he would call out to Sans about a particularly interesting book he would find. They each ended up checking out a few of their favorites and discussed the possibilities of combining food with puzzles as they left.

They later had lunch at a small restaurant called The Burgs and Noodle Shop that sold burgers and noodles, not a very creative name but the food was good. Sans still said he preferred Grillby's burgers, but Papyrus was enjoying all the different types of noodles they offered and began wondering if it was possible for him to create his own type of noodles. Sans said he would look into what it would take to do that as they paid and left.

Sans took them to the central park next. The first thing Papyrus saw was the surprisingly large tree standing right in the middle. It was unlike any tree he had seen before and was so very wide with lots of rather round leaves.

“Sans! What kind of tree is that?!” The excitement and wonder was hard to ignore.

Sans chuckled, “that's called an oak tree. it's the only one of it's kind down here and was planted by one of the first monsters to settle here in New Home.”

Papyrus walked up to it and placed a gloved hand on the trunk.

“An Oak tree? It is amazing! I had no idea there were other types of trees! How is it able to grow here? I haven't seen any other tree in New Home, just a few flowery type plants and bushes.”

Sans seemed to be enjoying himself just as much as Papyrus now. 

“a lotta magic and care is what i can guess. these trees and others like it grow everywhere on the surface, but it would have taken a lot of time and effort to keep it alive in the beginning. it did did help that we have those special crystals here in New Home.”

Papyrus turned to watch Sans talk. “Boy Sans, you sure do know a lot about this tree. What do you mean by, 'special crystals'?”

Sans seemed to have a sort of twinkle in his eye-lights, just like he got when would talk about space and stars. Papyrus had to guess that Sans just got like this for any sort of natural phenomenon of the surface. It was nice.

Sans pointed up at the crystals in the ceiling.

“those crystals are somehow able to direct even more sunlight into the Underground than the crystals in any other area. there might be a small cluster of them in the Dump somewhere, but no one has ever been able to pin-point them. these crystals are the reason so many monsters want to live in New Home. being able to see even a bit more surface light than anywhere else is often worth the overcrowding to some monsters.”

Papyrus had slid down to sit by the oak tree as he watched Sans talk. He was talking a lot more and a lot more animatedly than he had in a long time. Papyrus was use to short, quick, and to the point statements most of the time, or a pun. Just watching Sans talk so animatedly about anything put Papyrus' soul into an ease that he hadn't known in so very long. It also helped him to remember that this was the Sans that Papyrus was trying to save. This was the Sans that he wanted to protect more than anything.

Sans sat down next to Papyrus after a bit and began joking about how his laziness might be rubbing off on his dear younger brother. Papyrus just pretended to be insulted and looked out across the park. There were so many monsters, but they might as well have been the only two in the entire park as far as the brothers were concerned. They were the only two that mattered in that moment.

Papyrus felt so much hope in his soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Such a happy end.  
> ...  
> Don't worry, I am almost done with the next chapter and **should** have it out soon.  
>  I hope...


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confrontations are never fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Here Is A Bonus 2nd Chapter!  
> Just cause of my lack of updates from before.  
> I hope you guys enjoy!  
> ~♥~

Sans and Papyrus had sat under that old Oak tree for a long time. Papyrus was lost in the moment and Sans had fallen asleep. It wasn't till the artificial lights began turning on that Papyrus noticed just how long they had been sitting there. It had to have been more than a few hours since the sunlight was almost all gone for the day.

The younger skeleton looked down at his snoozing brother and began lightly shaking him so as to wake him up, but it seemed that Sans was deep asleep this time. This was rare for Sans since he was usually a very light sleeper. Papyrus felt that it would be a shame to ruin that for his older brother and wondered if he could carry him without waking him up. 

First though, Papyrus felt very stiff from sitting still for so long. He carefully stood up so as not to wake Sans or hurt himself and began stretching his bones. The cracks and pops felt very loud, but Sans slept on. He looked around the area and noticed that there were far fewer monsters around than earlier, but still far more crowded than Snowdin ever got. He was not very familiar with the area and needed to know the way to the riverperson, but he really didn't want to wake his brother just for that. Papyrus was sure he could just simply ask someone for directions and have no problem.

Then he noticed it. 

For every small group of monsters walking the streets, there seemed to be another, larger group congregating in the shadows of the buildings. 

Why these monsters were hiding in the shadows was not clear to Papyrus and something was really nagging him about it. He wanted to find out what it was they were doing, but he didn't want to take Sans over to those monsters, nor did he want to leave Sans all alone. Papyrus had no reason to believe anything bad would happen to Sans if he was left alone, but that was exactly what he felt. It was frustrating.

Papyrus looked down at his sleeping brother and then at their surrounding area. They seemed to be in a nice and open space with only the tree around, and those suspicious monsters were only in the buildings' shadows. If he left for just a minute or two to sate his curiosity, nothing could go wrong in just a minute. Right?

…

Papyrus stalked off to the closest group with his long strides with the purpose of spending as little time with them as possible. As he got closer, he could see that the group was surrounding a small Whimsun and another monster that he could not make out. The Whimsun did look scared, but they always looked scared, so it was nothing to go on. Papyrus stepped up to the edge of the group of about five or six monsters and the two smaller ones.

“Greetings friends! I could not help but wonder if any of you might be able to supply me with some directions!” Papyrus said with all the cheer he could muster.

All of the monsters jumped and turned to him quickly while he did notice one take off running. One of the monsters, a tall dog type monster that resembled Doggo with all black fur, stepped forward and growled at Papyrus. He was still a bit shorter, but he seemed to be trying to look bigger.

“Don't know no damn fart-knocker like yous, dawg. Ain't no fool here got jack shit for some straight edge as you.”

The dog-monster chuckled as if he just told a really good joke and the monsters behind him began laughing as well. Papyrus didn't not get the joke, nor was he really sure what was said.

“I apologize, though I am not quite sure I caught all that you said. Are you unable to give me any directions?”

“You be trippin' fool? I jack you up if you be thinking I ain't jack you up!”

The dog-monster was starting to get uncomfortably close to Papyrus now. He could almost feel the dog's breath and spit on his skull. The skeleton just raised his hands in a sign that he did not want any trouble.

“I assure you, I was not thinking that.” He still had no idea what 'that' was.

The dog-monster backed off some.

“Man, you just some wangsta scrub. Some damn flawsen ain't up to throw down, fuckin' buzz kill. Let's bone outta here and take da' cheddar else where's.”

Papyrus got the feeling that this monster had picked up his language from some sort of human media, or something similar. The two smaller monsters looked just as confused by the conversation, but they also looked completely terrified. Then they were grab by two of the larger monsters to be dragged away.

“Wait! Stop!” Papyrus ran further into the alley after them. “I do not feel that those two little ones wish to be here right now.”

The black dog stopped in his tracks and marched right up to Papyrus before grabbing him by the front of his shirt and throwing him further into the alleyway. Papyrus had really not been expecting that and only had enough time to throw his arms up to protect his skull from hitting the back wall. The skeleton only crumpled for a second before he was back up on his feet staring down the dog-monster.

“Dudes! Straight edge here think he wants to go playin' hero fo' them two litta cheddars! Blood, you think that dope?”

A red goat-like monster spoke up. “Nah, that some bunk shit man.”

The dog turned to another monster, “Hey Fats! Whachu think?”

A thin, slime looking monster spoke up this time, “Mofo be murkin'.”

“Damn straight! Gonna be some wicked beat down tonight!”

All of the monsters where now closing in on Papyrus while popping their knuckles and doing some random stretches. Papyrus was still not sure what had happened or why they all wanted to surround him like this, but it was making him very uncomfortable.

“Friends, please, there must be some form of misunderstanding here. If we all just calm down, I'm sure—”

“We ain't yo' damn friends!” The dog-monster shouted as he summoned a small collection of cartoon style bones in the air and began launching them at Papyrus. 

Realizing the danger he was in, Papyrus quickly summoned his own, much more realistic bones, and blocked every single one of the attacks.

“Please, I do not wish to fight anyone!”

The dog summoned a few more cartoon bones and flung them randomly while the slime summoned some small teardrop shaped bullets and the goat summoned some sort of strange eyeballs that floated around him. Papyrus blocked most of the attacks with two, long femur bones he summoned into his hands and dodged the rest. The eyeballs apparently shot simple lasers. It was become more apparent that these monsters just really wanted to fight Papyrus even if their reasoning seemed lacking.

Papyrus dodged again to the left and quickly knocked two of the eyes out of the air before another barrage of the small attacks landed in the area he was just standing in. Papyrus could not bring himself to want to hurt any of these monsters and was too busy berating himself for approaching them to notice the two monsters that had yet to attack him where closing in on the Whimsun and their friend.

Papyrus could have scoffed at the poor attacks these monsters were making, they even seemed to be shouting at him in that indiscernible speech pattern. The skeleton was not even trying all that hard at dodging and was more focused on how he could get out of there with no problem of them trying to follow him. 

Papyrus did a few more short movements to dodge the next set of attacks when a high pitched scream echoed in the alley. Papyrus looked up quickly and got hit by two cartoon bones in his shoulder; they barely hurt at all. He saw that the Whimsun had been hit to the ground and was not moving, it was the small Froggit type monster that had screamed and was about to be hit too. 

“That is not alright.” Papyrus growled.

He quickly summoned a massive wall of bones as tall as he was and used them shove all of the attacking monsters away from him and the two little ones. He rushed over to the two and tried to help them up, but the Whimsun was out cold. So he turned to the little Froggit.

“You need to get both of you out of here, now!”

The Froggit trembled, but nodded quickly before picking up the Whimsun and running off and out of the alleyway. It was just in time too, since one of the other monsters had managed to get around the wall of bones and yank Papyrus back by his red scarf. Papyrus landed hard on his tail bone and had to take a moment to reassess his situation.

He was now up against five, decently sized monsters who all seemed rather cross with him now. Though, Papyrus was not too pleased with them himself. It was never a good thing to pick on those smaller and weaker then you, and then to do so in a group none the less. Papyrus got back to his feet and stood just a couple inches taller than the tallest one of them. He cracked a few of his bones and his neck before summoning two new, sharpened bones. He spoke in a rather low and threatening voice.

“You five have been behaving in a very non-friendly manner. I do not approve.”

“Fuck You Shit-Stain!” One of them shouted, aggression still very strong in their voice.

Papyrus had no choice. 

They would not allow him any other choice. He had to fight them. 

A very small part of him seemed to tremble with joy. 

Somehow, Papyrus felt the need to agree with that part. 

These monsters deserved his rage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yah, I did it.   
> Totally stopped before any actual fighting.  
> Not sure why I thought it was good idea to try and write so many monsters fighting together at once.  
> Again, I'll try my hardest to keep you guys from waiting too long for the next chapter.  
> Thank you all!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nearing wits end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Wow! I actually got the chapter out this week!  
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos guys! I love each and everyone of you!  
> ~♥♥♥♥♥~

Sans woke up to someone violently shaking him.

“Sans!”

The voice sounded way to loud, yet at the same time not as loud as it should be.

“Sans! Please wake up!”

There was a panicked quality to it, but Sans was still very tired, though he could not remember falling asleep. He tried to rub his face to wake up some more. 

“Sans, please! I messed up! I messed up again!”

That didn't sound good and now that he thought about it, that voice had to belong to Papyrus, no on else should have been able to get this close to him. Realization dawning on him, he quickly pulled himself together and sat up, nearly slammed his skull into Papyrus' that was much closer than expected. 

“woah! i'm up! what's wrong? what happened?”

Papyrus was trembling all over and looked like he was fighting to keep himself from crying, and losing. He keep darting his eye-lights all around them as if they were being watched or someone might be listening in on them. He just couldn't keep still and keep jittering.

“I-It happened a-again! I-I don't k-know! I-I just wanted to p-punish them, b-but then t-there was red! All the Red! All That Horrible RED!”

“woah! woah! calm down!” 

Sans was panicking now too and looking around to make sure that no one was looking at them or even close to them. Luckily, it looked like it was already dark and the park was empty. He began rubbing Papyrus' arms to try and keep them both calm.

“please paps, i need you to tell me what happened. d-did you hurt someone?” He could not believe what he was saying, but it wasn't long enough ago that Papyrus was in a similar state. “i-if you did, i-i need you to tell me where.”

Papyrus was a complete sobbing mess already and Sans felt like he might end up the same soon, he could already feel the tears wanting to form. He couldn't even tell that he was just gripping Papyrus' arms now.

“A-An a-alley, o-o-over t-there...” 

Papyrus lifted his hand just slightly to one of the alleys close by and Sans felt his soul drop. He knew he asked and that it was a possibility, but to hear the confirmation was just something he wasn't sure he could handle. Without another word, he teleported them both into that alley. 

The sight of that alley made him wonder if it was possible for his soul to just fall out of his body entirely. The alley was full of dust, far more dust than could come from just one monster. Sans felt like he would be sick and nearly threw-up right then and there till he noticed that Papyrus was still quietly sobbing on the dust covered ground. He had to hold himself together. He couldn't go to pieces just yet, no matter how much he wanted to.

“S-Sans...”

Papyrus' voice was so uncharacteristically low that Sans could have passed it off as his imagination, but it was Papyrus. Sans looked back at his younger brother again and saw the most beaten puppy dog look he ever did see looking up at him. It pulled him from his conflicting and confusing thoughts.

“Y-You said you would always b-be on my side, right?”

How could Sans ever say anything else.

“of course.”

“N-No matter what?”

“always.”

Papyrus sniffled and rubbed his face as he looked away.

“...I'm LV 3.”

Sans' eye-lights vanished. 

He couldn't handle this. 

This wasn't right. 

This had to be some sort of alternate universe.

This wasn't real.

“I-I'm So S-Sorry! Sans! P-Please brother! Don't Leave Me ALONE!”

Papyrus was sobbing loudly now and clinging to Sans' jacket as if he could sense that Sans wanted to teleport away. Sans did want to run away. He was so good at running away, but he would never be able to forgive himself if he just left his younger brother alone like this. Sans gripped the front of his jacket without looking at Papyrus.

“y-yah, no. i-i won't leave you. j-just got c-clean this up. make sure no one finds out. i— i would never leave you.”

Sans absentmindedly patted Papyrus on his skull and got to work scooping all of the dust up into the random trash bins in the alley with his blue magic. After that was done, he took them both to Alphys' lab to get rid of any video evidence. Luckily, Alphys seemed to be elsewhere at the time. They then went straight home. 

Papyrus was still crying and clinging to Sans, but was trying to keep quiet while Sans was looking at nothing, not even Papyrus. Sans eventually pulled them both to the couch and sat down. Papyrus laid himself in Sans' lap and just curled up as if to sleep. Sans began petting his brother's skull with no thought put into it.

They stayed like that for the rest of the night.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first signs of the morning began shining through the front window when Papyrus noticed Sans had stopped petting him. He didn't move right away and just stared straight ahead at the TV. Papyrus was tired, but the burning and jittering in his bones made him want to get up and do something. 

He felt Sans twitch some, he must be having a nightmare. 

Papyrus felt like it might be better if he tried to get some sleep too, then he remembered that he had completely forgotten to tell Undyne about Sans and him taking the day off. He didn't want her to make any surprise visits with them or anything. 

He pulled out his phone and notice that it was off. He could not remember turning it off, but pushed the power button anyways. It was apparently dead. Papyrus sighed. He could not leave to find his charger, otherwise he might wake up Sans, so all he could do was hope that Undyne would just wait till later.

-BAM! BAM! BAM!-

The pounding on the front door was so loud that both skeletons had jolted up in a panic with an array of bones floating all over the living room.

-BAM! BAM! BAM!-

“PAPYRUS! GET YOUR BONEY BUTT OUT HERE!”

That had both skeletons groaning as they dissipated their magic.

It figured that Undyne would show up at the least convenient time possible.

Sans looked angry, but made his way to the door as Papyrus sat on the ground trying to rub his face into less of a mess. Sans opened the door just Undyne was apparently about to start banging again.

“SANS!”, the armored fish shouted.

“hey fishstick. what brings you here with our unsolicited wake up call?”

Sans had his plastered on smile and default slouch switched on. 

“SHUT UP SANS! I'M HERE BECAUSE PAPYRUS HAS NOT ANSWERED HIS PHONE AT ALL SINCE YESTERDAY!”

She looked over Sans into the living room and Saw Papyrus still sitting on the floor. He wasn't doing a very good job at hiding the pain from his face.

“OH HELL NO! PAPS! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!”

Sans was already feeling the signs of a migraine coming and grabbed at his skull as if trying to block it out.

“geez undies, do you have any other volume other than skull-splitting?”

“I'M WARNING YOU, DON'T CALL ME THAT!”

“well would you prefer 'seafood'?”

“WHAT?!”

Undyne stepped inside and reached out to grab Sans by his shirt, but he quickly dodged out of the way. He did not want to take any chances right now. She looked shocked for a second before pulling herself back up to full height again, narrowing her single eye down at him. Sans just glared right back.

“I SWEAR IF YOU DID ANYTHING TO UPSET PAPS—”

“you'll what?”, Sans interrupted. “you're the bitch-fish that keeps putting him in danger with all your stupid 'training'.”

“YOU DARE—?!”

“S-STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!”

Sans and Undyne both quickly looked over at Papyrus and saw him standing and trying to glare at them both, but they could see him trembling.

“N-Neither of you are behaving very nicely right now. Arguing like this never helps anyone.”

Papyrus would like to say the two looked very ashamed of themselves now, but Sans still was scowling as he tried to back away from the situation. At least, Undyne looked ashamed of herself. 

“Now if we could just all sit down and try again, calmly?”

Undyne nodded quickly before stepping all the way in the house and closing the door. Sans just took a glance at Papyrus and moved to sit on the far end of the couch without another word.

This was going to be difficult, but Papyrus felt...Determined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  
> Undyne has made her entrance!  
> Sans does not look very happy about their surprise guest.  
> hehehehehehehe


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne is like a hurricane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Guess what?   
> I thought that I would not be able to get this chapter to you till tomorrow or the next day, but I got it done early and so you get it now! Yay!  
> And to top it off, I really like how this one came out. I thought Undyne would give me a lot more problems than she did. She's basically a more vicious version of what Paps use to be.  
> I hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I did!  
> Love ya all! ~♥♥♥~

Everyone was taking a break.

Papyrus was in the kitchen. He tried to get himself to make spaghetti, but ended up just standing there staring at the ingredients on the counter. He really wanted to sit down now, but feared he would break down and cry if he did.

Undyne was sitting on the couch. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she tapped nervously with her foot. She wanted to get up and do something about the way Papyrus had been acting since she got here, but Sans did not approve of her methods.

Sans was sitting at the top of the stairs. He would have preferred to be in his room, but he did not trust Undyne to be alone with Papyrus. So he sat there, just watching Undyne on the couch and waiting for her to give him any reason to kick her out.

The house was deathly quiet.

Papyrus had, at first, tried to convince Undyne that he was fine and that he had just tripped. She didn't buy it. Sans then tried to force her out by telling her that nothing was wrong and that anything that happened in their house was their business. That just made her angrier and more violent. Papyrus had to push them away from each other again and said he would make them both “friendship spaghetti” if they would just behave and be nice to each other. Papyrus knew it wouldn't work for Sans, but he really just wanted his older brother to realize that they needed a different way to keep Undyne from finding out the truth. 

Papyrus groaned quietly in the kitchen as he rubbed his face. His head still hurt from all the crying he did yesterday and all the arguing and yelling today was not helping. 

He sighed and looked back at the ingredients still sitting there in front of him. It was obvious that there was going to be no spaghetti made today.

“ **UUURRRRRAAAAGH!** ”, Undyne shouting from the living room. “ **I CAN'T STAND IT! THIS HOUSE IS TOO QUIET AND NO ONE IS TELLING ME WHY!** ”

Her loud voice sent new throbbing through Papyrus' skull and he saw that it also scared Sans since he was now standing in the entryway to the kitchen. Undyne did not seem to care when or how Sans got there so fast as she continued her screaming.

“ **GET OUT OF MY WAY SANS! I AM GOING TO GET ANSWERS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER AND NO ONE IS GOING TO STOP ME! ESPECIALLY NOT SOME LAZY ASS THAT MIGHT EVEN BE THE REASON PAPYRUS IS ACTING STRANGE!** ”

“just try and move me, then we'll see just how lazy I can be.” 

Sans voice was deathly low in comparison to Undyne's. It just went to show how serious he was and Papyrus did not want anyone dying today.

Papyrus walked up behind Sans and carefully placed a hand on his shoulder. Sans twitched but did not turn around.

“Sans, let me talk to Undyne. I'll explain to her what happened and...and...”

“what?!”, Sans turned around quickly, throwing the hand from his shoulder and looking up at Papyrus, “what are you talking about paps? nothing happened, there's nothing to explain.”

Sans was trying to tell Papyrus to stop talking with just his eye-lights since Undyne was still standing right behind him. Though, the desperation in his voice was a pretty big ~~red flag~~ sign that something had indeed happened.

“Sans, I think it is obvious that something happened and I feel that it is necessary that I speak with Undyne alone.”

“what are you doing?!”, Sans tried to whisper, but he was freaking out since it sounded like Papyrus was trying to give himself up.

“ **FINALLY.** ” Undyne scoffed and crossed her arms.

A low growl emanated from Sans as he was about to turn back around to face Undyne, but Papyrus grabbed him by the shoulders, keeping him locked in place.

“Sans, please. I need to talk to Undyne alone.”

Sans looked up again with a scowl and Papyrus gave a small smile with a slight squeeze to his shoulders.

“I'll be fine.”

Papyrus was trying to put enough subtle hints in he words and his voice to get Sans to understand that he was not trying to give up, but that Sans might only make ~~things worse~~ Undyne even angrier.

Sans stared at his brother for a moment longer before finally pushing his hands off his shoulders with a scoff.

“fine. whatever. do what you want.”

With that, Sans pushed past Undyne and left the house.

Papyrus truly hoped that Sans understood.

Undyne laughed out, “WELL NOW THAT THE STUBBORN ASS IS FINALLY GONE, CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON PAPS?”

Papyrus frowned at how she spoke of his brother, but pushed it aside in favor of a peaceful solution. Quickly putting on a smile, he turned to Undyne.

“Of course Undyne. You know Sans means well and he only has my best interest at heart, but maybe we could sit down to talk?”

Undyne showed off her large pointed teeth in a huge smile. “OF COURSE PAPS! I'M HERE FOR YOU!”

She then pulled them both to the couch with much more strenght than necessary, shoving Papyrus down and plopping down next to him with such force that he feared she would break the couch.

“SO TELL ME! WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY DO YOU LOOK SO DOWN IN THE DUMPS TODAY? AND WHY DID YOU NOT ANSWER YOUR PHONE AT ALL LATELY?!”

Papyrus sighed and tried to keep his pounding skull from distracting him too much.

“I apologize Undyne, but Sans and I went to New Home yesterday because Sans said that their library had some of the books I had been wanting to read.”

“YOU'RE SUCH A NERD.”

“...I had forgotten to charge my phone the day before and it had died while we were out. While we were out there, Sans thought it would be nice to show me around since I had never been to New Home before.”

“IS SANS TRYING TO PULL YOU INTO HIS LAZY WAYS?”

“No Undyne, Sans worked really hard to give me a nice tour of the city.”

“HA! ARE YOU SURE THAT WAS SANS AND NOT SOME CRAZY LOOK-ALIKE?”

It was getting harder to keep calm and not yell at his best friend for interrupting and constantly insulting Sans.

“Undyne, I am just trying to tell you what happened.”

“YAH, YAH, OK.”, she snickered.

“It was a nice day till we, um, stumbled upon some bullies.”

“ **WHAT?! WHAT HAPPENED?! WHO WERE THEY?!** ”

“....Undyne...”

“OH! YAH, SORRY.”

His headache was just getting worse.

“...I don't know who they were but they seemed to be bothering a couple of smaller monsters, so I went up to them to ask them to stop. They didn't seem to like that too much, so I asked them again to stop. They proceed to push me and yell at me. I only wanted to teach them some manners, but they...may have gotten hurt...”

Papyrus looked away and began messing with the fraying ends of his scarf. Undyne was staying quiet for a lot longer then was comfortable and Papyrus was beginning to fear that he may have told her too much. Then she suddenly slapped him across the back, nearly pushing him to the floor as she laughed out loud.

“IS THAT ALL? I SWEAR PAPYRUS, YOU HAD ME REALLY WORRIED FOR A BIT THERE.”

Papyrus just turned to look up at this crazy fish warrior with his jaw hanging open and no sound coming out. His eye-lights were full of confusion and disbelief. Undyne just laughed again.

“OH COME ONE PAPS, YOU STOOD UP FOR YOURSELF AND THOSE WEAKER THAN YOU! I THINK THAT IS AMAZING! IF THOSE OTHER MONSTERS GOT HURT, IT WAS THEIR OWN FAULT TO BEGIN WITH. LIKE REALLY, BULLYING? WHAT ARE WE, KIDS?”

Papyrus could not find any words to describe his amazement right now.

“LISTEN, I KNOW YOU FEEL BAD ABOUT HURTING SOMEONE, BUT THERE ARE SOME MONSTERS THAT REFUSE TO LISTEN TO REASON AND YOU WILL OFTEN HAVE TO FIND OTHER WAYS TO CONVINCE THEM OF THEIR WRONG-DOINGS. HURTING OTHERS NEVER FEELS GOOD, BUT FOR ANY GREATER GOOD SOME SACRIFICE CAN BE UNAVOIDABLE.”

Papyrus was amazed. Not just because of what she was saying, but because those were similar things that he had been telling himself for awhile now. Though, somehow hearing these words from Undyne just made them make so much more sense. Sure, getting DT was not pleasant, nor were the new feelings that came with it, but it was an “unavoidable sacrifice”. He was only doing what he needed to do for the “greater good”. He was doing it for those poor little monsters that could not defend themselves. He was doing it for every monster that ended up in that humans war path. He was doing it for his friends like Undyne. He was doing it for Sans.

“Thank you Undyne. That makes me feel a lot better already. I guess I just really needed to hear that from you.”

“GLAD TO HEAR THAT NERD!”, Undyne laughed out loud and gave Papyrus another slap on the back.

Yes, he was doing this for the greater good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HA!  
> Did you see that end coming?  
> Who knew that Undyne was such an enabler, am I right?  
> hehehehehe
> 
> wonder how Sans will feel about that...


End file.
